MOREHEAD, Ky. – In a reversal of its season-long pattern, the Morehead State softball team jumped out to an early lead, before allowing six late-inning runs in falling to Belmont 8-4 on Sunday in the final contest of a three-game series at Nashville, Tennessee's E.S. Rose Park.
Entering the contest, MSU opponents had only scored 30 percent of their runs past the fifth inning. On Sunday, that number rose to 50 percent.
The Eagles led twice early, 2-0 after the top of the second and then 3-2 from the top of the third through the bottom of the fourth inning. However, it was Belmont's four runs scored during the fifth and sixth frames that proved to be the difference.
"Our staff was more pleased with the game (compared to yesterday), even though we didn't get the outcome we wanted. We felt like they competed more in their at-bats. We did a great job going through three pitchers of Belmont, taking out their number one. So, we were very pleased with that," MSU coach
Samantha Jones said. "Belmont did a good job of hitting the ball hard and our defense did a good job of making the plays that needed to be made. We still need to cut down on the number of errors that we have and hopefully (had we done that) that game would be a little closer."
Neither team scored in the first, but MSU's defense came up big when freshman catcher
Ilencia Lightbody connected with senior shortstop
Peyton Slater to throw out senior center fielder Cheyenne Cavanaugh attempting to steal, snapping her string of 51 straight successful stolen bases.
Like she did in Saturday's second game, senior first baseman
Alexis Strother got Morehead State (5-31/4-15) started by leading off the second with a double off the left-field fence. Two batters later, freshman catcher
Ilencia Lightbody singled to center field and then stole second. With two outs, junior center fielder
Trinity Spear cleared the bases with a triple to right field.
In the bottom of the inning, junior first baseman Abi Ledbetter lined a one-out single up the middle and freshman third baseman Emily Cockrill homered to left-center field to knot the score at 2-2.
However, the Eagles responded in the third inning. Sophomore second baseman/shortstop
Peyton Jordan singled to center field and senior shortstop/catcher
Peyton Slater followed with a double also to center field. Strother then loaded the bases with a walk, and senior third baseman
Peyton Rose pushed Jordan home by drawing a walk after a full count. Sophomore pitcher Emma Summers who was perfect in the first game of the series induced the final two outs to stem the bleeding.
Belmont (26-11/16-4) picked up a hit in the bottom of the third, but a Slater to Strother double play ended any potential threat.
The next inning, the Bruins retook the lead aided by a pair of Eagle defensive miscues. Senior shortstop Elison Ollinger doubled down the right-field line to begin the stanza. Cockrill reached on an error as did sophomore second baseman Kaley Varner, which allowed both Ollinger and Cockrill to score.
BU made a pitching change to start the fifth by turning to freshman Delayna Bryant.
The Eagles made wholesale changes in the field entering the bottom of the fifth. Six players changed positions, including freshman
Madi Ogden who moved to pitcher, but it did not seem to help as the hosts were able to plate three more Bruins, including a two on a double by senior catcher Audrey Lyle. MSU's fourth error of the contest contributed to one of the scores.
Belmont cemented its lead after Cavanaugh led off the sixth with a home run to left-center field that extended the hosts' advantage to 8-3.
The Eagles continued to battle in the seventh as a trio of singles loaded the bases to begin the inning. Spear started the rally with a shot to right field, junior designated player/first baseman
Taylor Rhea beat out an infield hit and junior left fielder Maddi Gailor punched one through the infield into left-center to load the bases.
Belmont then turned to sophomore Alex Clesi to finish the game in the circle.
Jordan followed by reaching base on a fielder's choice that scored Spear. However, with runners on the corners MSU was unable to drive in any additional runs as the final two batters flew out.
With the victory, Belmont extended its win streak to seven games, while the Eagles fell for the 30th consecutive time on the road.
Morehead State left six runners on base, four of which were in scoring position, but committing four errors was its downfall.
Spear led the team with two hits and two RBI. Gailor, Jordan, Slater, Strother, Lightbody and Rhea all had one hit. Rose and Jordan each added an RBI. Jordan, sophomore pinch runner
Erin Boyle, Lightbody and Spear all scored a run.
Cavanaugh, Cockerill and Ledbetter paced the Bruins with two hits apiece. Cockerill also finished with three RBI and scored three times. Lyle had two RBI, while Ollinger and Ledbetter both scored twice.
Spicer lasted four innings and suffered the loss to fall to 4-16. She allowed six hits, two earned runs and a walk, while striking out three. Ogden pitched two innings and gave up three earned runs on five hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Summers picked up the win to improve to 11-6. She surrendered three earned runs on five hits over four innings. She also walked two and struck out six. Bryant pitched two innings in relief, yielding one run on three hits with no walks or strikeouts. Clesi got the save with one inning's work. She retired all three batters she faced, but without anyone striking out.
After Morehead State returns home, it will have two days off before playing on the road again as the team will complete its's six-game swing away from Morehead with a Wednesday doubleheader against Tennessee Tech. Game one will start at 4 p.m. ET.
The Eagles will next be at home this weekend with a series of three contests versus Tennessee State. The teams will meet for two games on Saturday and play once on Sunday.
