ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team split its two games on Friday in the McKendree Bearcat Classic at the O'Fallon Family Sports Park in O'Fallon, Ill. The Tritons defeated Davenport 4-1 in its first game of the afternoon and lost to Missouri Western 5-4 on a walk-off hit in the nightcap.
Game 1 – UMSL 4 Davenport 1
UMSL (6-5) got on the board first against the Panthers (5-7) on
McKenzie Lamos' two-run homer to center field with no out in the home half of the fourth.
Davenport's lone run came in the fifth on Brooke Bernt's RBI single through the right side of the infield that scored Riley Hasseld.
The Tritons added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.
Irene Travis doubled to center to drive in
Courtney Settles and
Simia Spahiev grounded out to short to bring in Lamos.
That was all the run support that
Katie Schaake needed as she went the distance allowing an unearned run on seven hits with five strikeouts and a walk to pick up her first win of the season.
UMSL had six hits in the contest and was led by Settles with two hits. Lamos, Travis, Spahiev and
May Pasqualini had a hit each.
Game 2 – MWSU 5 UMSL 4
The Tritons jumped out to the early lead in the nightcap as Settles led off the contest with a home run to right.
The Griffons (7-4) took the lead scoring twice in the third. Mackenzie DeVine drove in Kalee Higdon with a single to right to tie the game and Myah Dywer doubled to center to drive in the go-ahead run.
UMSL retook the lead as it put up a three-spot in the fourth.
Gwyn Miller drove in
Maddie Snemis with the tying run and Pasqualini followed with a double scoring Miller and
Jamie Widule.
MWSU tied the game in its half of the fourth. Kennedy Preston doubled to center to bring home Taylor Bristol to make it a one-run game. Later in the inning, Higdon hit a sacrifice fly to right to drive in Wynter Hurst with the tying run.
The game remained tied until the last of the seventh. With one out Taylor Jones singled up the middle and advanced to third on DeVine's double to center. After a strikeout, Bubba Hoelscher hit a walk-off single to left to bring home Jones with the winning run.
The Tritons finished with 11 hits in the contest and was led by Widule with three while Settles and Lamos had two apiece.
Ashley Borowitz took the loss pitching the final 3.2 innings in relief of
Lexi Sherrick. Borowitz gave up one run on three hits while striking out four to fall to 4-3 on the season.
UMSL returns to the diamond on Saturday for two more games in the Bearcat Classic. It'll take on Purdue Northwest at noon followed by a game against Washburn at 2:30 p.m. at the O'Fallon Family Sports Park in O'Fallon, Ill.
