Maverick softball takes four at Missouri
The Minnesota State softball team went on the road this past weekend and came home with four more wins under their belts.
At the Hy-vee Softball Classic, the Mavericks played two doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday and failed to drop any of them.
The weekend began with a match against the host of the event, Missouri Western. Torey Richards led the team going 2-for-3 in the team’s 2-1 win. The Mavs got on the board first in the second inning on an error by Missouri Western’s Taylor Hoelscher, following a hit from Kylie Sullivan.
WMSU tied the game in the third inning with an RBI single from Emma Hoffart, Mackenzie Ward’s only run allowed in the game.
The Mavs game winning run came in the top of the 5th inning, when Sydney Nielsen singled up the middle, scoring Carly Esselman to take the 2-1 lead, and the eventual win.
Ward pitched a complete game and allowed four hits while striking out 13 batters in the contest.
In the latter half of the Mavericks doubleheader, the Minnesota State took on the Missouri Southern Lions in a 4-0 win.
All four runs for the Mavericks came in the first inning. Esselman led off the inning with a walk for the Mavericks. Nielsen then singled to right field, followed by another walk for Richards, loading the bases with no outs for the Lions. Hannah McCarville singled to right field in her at bat, scoring two on the play. This led to the Mavericks having runners on the corners, and eventually McCarville scoring from third.
After a pitching change, the Mavs would have two more batters walk in the inning, the second walk with the bases loaded and advancing the runners at every base, making it a 4-0 game for Minnesota State.
McKayla Armbruster finished the game with 3 hits allowed, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts in 6.0 IP. Katie Bracken relieved Armbruster in the 7th inning, allowing just one hit while facing three batters, with the game ending in a double play.
In Saturday’s first game the Mavs faced the No. 9-ranked Rogers State, where MSU took another 2-1 win.
The scoring took a bit longer to get started than the previous game, with Nielsen getting it going with a lead off home run to left field, giving MSU a 1-0 lead.
In the 5th inning, Hannah Hastings hit a single up the middle, with Ellie Tallman coming in to pinch run for her. Tallman scored off Sullivan’s single to center field, after advancing to second on the previous at bat.
Rogers State scored their lone run of the game off an RBI double, with Lana Gass scoring from first. The run would not be enough, as the top 10 team dropped their sixth game of the season, and their second in a row.
MSU closed out their weekend with a 7-0 win over Northwest Missouri State.
After a quick three up, three down inning for the Northwest Missouri offense, the Mavs answered with three runs, including a 2 RBI double from McCarville. Hailey Forshee then singled to center and batted in McCarville, to take an early 3-0 lead.
MSU scored another three in the 3rd inning, where the Mavericks recorded five hits.
The final run came from Richards scoring off Forshee’s single up the middle in the 6th inning, giving the Mavs the 7-0 win.
Over the weekend, MSU improved their record to 11-2 and are riding a five game winning streak. The squad will begin their conference play next Tuesday, March 30, against Concordia St. Paul.