Softball finish week strong away from home

Aaron Young

Staff Writer

After struggling out of the gate, the team finished the week winning three of their last five games

The Maverick softball team had a long week of play this past week, with five games being played within a stretch this past weekend with back-to-back losses.

The first set of games of the week took place on Friday, where they experienced devastating losses to both Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern State.

Despite throwing a career-high eight strikeouts, Mackenzie Ward suffered a loss at the hands of the Gorillas.

Cori Kennedy batted in the only run of the night for the Mavericks in the third inning, sending Jessica Miedl home to score the lone run.

Kennedy, along with Esselman and Bastian, had two hits.

Freshman Julia Bastian tripled in one of her two at bats.

In the second game of the day versus Missouri Southern State, there was a lot more action at the dish. The Lions defeated Minnesota State, 13-11. The Lions got out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first before the Mavericks responded back with 6 runs of their own. The highlight of the inning was a two-run home run by junior

McKenzie Paap, the first of the season for the outfielder.

Following a one run inning by the Lions, the Mavs came out gunning. In particular, sophomore Amber Kral homered to bring the lead up 8-5. Despite the aggressiveness at the plate by the softball squad, Missouri Southern State responded even stronger, tying the game at 8 in the 4th and driving in 4 more runs in to take a 12-8 lead going into 6th. Unfortunately, the team fell short trying to rally, falling to defeat 13-11.

After losing two games on Friday, the girls came back hard and won two straight games against Central Oklahoma and Emporia State , as they competed in the St.Patrick’s Day Classic. Now I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t say it was luck that got the Mavericks to two victories on St. Patty’s day.

The star of the first game was Cori Kennedy, who blasted a career-high 3 home runs and had 6 RBI’s en-route to a 10-2 victory against the Central Oklahoma Broncos.

Senior Jessica Meidl also contributed 3 hits of her own, including a double.

Freshman Julia Bastian took advantage of her opportunity as well, adding 2 hits along with an RBI.

What was a blowout in the first game, turned into a thriller in the second game. The Emporia State Hornets gave the Mavericks a true challenge as the two teams battled it out until the end. This time it was sophomore Caitlin Stone who got the victory, improving her record to 6-1.

Four players had two hits and it was Carly Esselman and Jessica Meidl who drove in a combined three runs against the Hornets. The senior drove in freshman Courtney Potter which was the dagger that resulted in a win for Minnesota State.

The Mavericks continued their momentum and tapped off a busy weekend for the team, winning in the finale of their weekend stretch. In the fifth game that took place Sunday in Emporia, KS at Canon Field, the softball team beat the Northeastern State Riverhawks, 6-2.

The girls lit up at the plate, smashing nine hits split mostly four players. Amber Kral started the game out with a bang hitting a home run in the first and had 2 RBI’s in the game. Kral now has five home runs on the year. Paap and Richards also had 2 hits.

Mackenzie Ward earned her 8th victory of the year, while striking out a game-high six batters.
Minnesota State is 8-3 in their past 11 games and 19-5 overall on the year. The team will be taking a break until March 27th. They will look to keep up their success against Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears.