MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State softball team continued its strong play at the University Field where it gained a split on Friday afternoon against Tennessee State in a battle between two teams fighting for a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
The Eagles improved to 6-7 at home after taking the first game 3-1 and dropping the second 4-2 to the Tigers. The victory in the opener extended the team's home win streak to four games, its longest since winning 13 straight spanning the end of the 2016 season and into the start of 2017.
Friday was the first two outings of a seven-game home stand.
Morehead State (7-33/6-17) remains a half game out of eighth place. Tennessee State (14-36/5-19) is one and a half games behind the Eagles. SIUE (15-30/6-16) holds an edge over both squads. The Cougars play the first contest of their weekend series at home against Southeast Missouri on Saturday and concludes it with a pair of outings on Sunday.
Friday was MSU's Senior Day and the team honored third baseman
Peyton Rose, catcher/infielder
Peyton Slater, first baseman
Alexis Strother, manager Sara Estes and student assistant
Chloe Whitlock before the first game.
Oftentimes the mixed feelings can cause problems for the players being recognized and their teammates when it is one of their final home games. That did not appear to be the case for the Blue and Gold.
"I'm proud of the seniors for not letting an emotional day like that take over their at-bats and the way that they play the game," said Morehead State head coach
Samantha Jones.
In the opener, MSU got on the board first after three consecutive singles started the third inning, with junior left fielder Maddi Gailor's shot to center field plating junior center fielder
Trinity Spear. In between Gailor's hit and Spear's blooper that fell just inside the left-field grass, junior designated player
Taylor Rhea singled to right-center field.
TSU answered in the fourth after a sophomore first baseman Peyton Fointno single and a pair of MSU errors allowed sophomore third baseman Anayah Baker, who had reached on an error to lead off the inning, to come home.
The Tigers returned the favor by letting a defensive miscue lead to the contest's next run. In the MSU fourth, Strother singled to lead off the inning. She moved around the bases on ground outs and then scored after a throwing error.
The hosts added an insurance run in the fifth. Like they did in the fourth, the Eagles benefitted from a leadoff single (by Gailor) and then advanced the runner on ground outs. After a Strother walk, MSU induced the Tigers to throw the ball to prevent Strother initiating a double steal, but Gailor ended up scoring on the play.
Sophomore
Lennon Spicer (6-16) got the win with a complete game. She allowed three hits and no earned runs, while walking one and striking out eight. Senior Raven Loveless (4-15) suffered the loss after six innings that included seven hits, two earned runs, two walks and a strikeout.
Gailor, Strother and Rhea led the Eagles with two hits apiece. Gailor also had an RBI and scored a run. Spear also finished with a hit and scored a run. Strother scored MSU's other run.
TSU's three hits were spread out between three different players.
"It was very exciting for the first game to be able to push three runs (across the plate) against them (and) have some timely hits," Jones said. "The defense did a great job of backing Lennon up, even after they scored one run. Overall that first game, the bottom half of the lineup did a great job of producing, getting on base and scoring our runs."
In the nightcap, the Tigers jumped out to the early lead in the first after Fointno doubled to left-center and junior designated player Kayli Mothershed followed with a double down the left-field line.
The visitors added a second run in the fourth after another pair of doubles, this time by Baker and junior center fielder Marisa Mauroschadt, with the latter's hit driving in Baker.
MSU responded in the bottom of the frame to tie the score at 2-2. Freshman catcher
Ilencia Lightbody hit a two-out double, Spear reached on a fielder's choice, with an error and wild pitch moving each up a base. Rhea followed with a single up the middle that sent Spear home.
A (freshman left fielder) Jasmine Brown triple jump-started the Tigers in the fifth, before she later scored on a wild pitch. Senior shortstop Lauren Farias drew a walk, moved all the way to third on the wild pitch and came home on a Fointno hit that fell between home plate and the circle that the Eagles were unable to get to in time.
MSU got hits in the fifth, sixth and seventh, but was unable to generate any additional runs. The Eagles finished the contest having stranded a game-high seven runners.
Freshman Caitlyn Manus picked up the win to improve to 8-11. In a complete game, she surrendered seven hits, no earned runs and one walk, while striking out three. It was the Tigers first victory over the Eagles in 15 games, a stretch that dates back to April 6, 2007.
Freshman
Madi Ogden took the loss to fall to 1-11. She also went the distance and gave up eight hits, four earned runs and two walks. She also finished with three strikeouts.
Fointno and Mothershed paced the Tigers with two hits apiece, while Lightbody and sophomore second baseman
Peyton Jordan did the same for the Eagles. Strother, Rose and Rhea added hits for MSU. Rhea had the team's lone RBI, while Lightbody and Spear scored the club's two runs.
"We came out a little flat. Madi O. did a decent job on the mound mixing her pitches, but Tennessee State came out on top with some harder hits. They were definitely connecting their barrel to the ball a lot more than we were," Jones said. "We will continue to work on having a better approach in our at-bats. Defensively, we need to do a better job of communicating and being more aware of the game. (Our) base running was really good."
The two teams will close out the series on Saturday with a single contest at 1 p.m. ET.
"It's an exciting time, since we split with them already," said Jones. "We're looking forward to coming back tomorrow and hopefully getting another win to push us forward in the rankings (with) our conference opponents."
After Saturday, the Eagles will remain at home for two pairs of games – Tuesday against Rio Grande (Ohio) and Wednesday versus Butler. Competition begins at 2 p.m. on Tuesday and 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Morehead State's regular season will end next weekend with a trip to Murray State for a three-game series starting Saturday.
