Maverick softball wins four in Emporia
Most college students opt to travel to destinations like Florida or Mexico or some other warm weather location over spring break. The softball team, however, took a trip down to Emporia, Kansas where they went 4-1 in the Emporia State Softball Classic.
They began their weekend with a 7-2 win over the Southwest Baptist Bearcats. The Bearcats managed to get on the board first with a solo home run from SBU’s Morgan McMullin, but the lead wouldn’t last very long.
Madi Newman was the first to score for the Mavs with a solo home run to center field, her 1st of the year and 2nd career home run. Newman tied the score at one a piece.
MSU rallied in the 4th inning, scoring five runs, with six different Mavericks recording hits with a walk tagged on.
SBU attempted to make a comeback in the bottom of the 7th, but couldn’t complete it, only scoring one run. The Mavs took the first win of the tournament, with McKayla Armbruster getting the win on the mound.
The second game in their doubleheader, the Mavs took down Washburn by a score of 7-0, scoring all seven runs in the 3rd inning. Newman started the inning off with a home run, her second on the day. Carly Esselman scored the second run by stealing third, and proceeding home on an error by Washburn’s catcher. Sydney Nielsen scored another unearned run on an error by Washburn, followed by a three run home run from Hannah McCarville to give the Mavericks a 6-0 lead. Sydney Nelson batted in the final run of the game with a single to right field.
Mackenzie Ward took the win and improved her record to 3-1.
In their first game on Saturday, MSU went up against University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The Mavs wasted no time getting the scoring started, scoring four runs in the 1st inning. Torey Richards batted in Esselman after her lead off double. Hailey Forshee then batted in Richards with a single to right field. McCarville finished off the scoring for the Mavericks with a two run home run, giving the Mavs the 4-0 lead at the end of the first.
In the 2nd inning, McCarville was walked with the bases loaded, leading Esselman to score, followed immediately by Katie Bracken being walked, scoring Nielsen to take the 6-0 lead.
In the 4th inning the Mavericks scored another two runs off a sacrifice fly ball and a sacrifice groundout to take the lead 8-0. Since St. Louis couldn’t manage to score any runs in their next at bats, the game ended in the 5th inning. Armbruster picked up the win.
The Mavericks second game of the doubleheader was against Illinois-Springfield, in what would be their closest game of the season so far.
The game remained tied through the first five innings of play, until UIS scored two unearned in the 6th inning, making it a 2-0 game.
In the 7th inning, Nielsen managed to hit a home run with two outs, but the Mavs couldn’t quite catch up and they dropped their first game of the weekend.
In their final game, the Mavericks took on Missouri Southern and got to work right away. Minnesota State took an early lead, ending the first inning leading the game 2-0.
The Mavs scored another From Forshees single up the middle, her second RBI of the game. Missouri Southern got their only run of the game on the board in the fourth inning on an RBI single. The Mavericks made sure to close out the game with no chance of the Lions catching up, scoring five runs in the sixth inning. The Mavs closed out the game by a score of 8-1. Ward took the win in the contest.
The Mavs improved their record to 7-2 on the road trip, and prepare to head to Missouri to participate in the Hy-vee Softball Classic.