Cougar News
Softball - Sat, Apr. 13, 2013 at 7:10 PM
MAYFIELD, Ky. - Mid-Continent University's softball team had a really tough time at the plate in their last double-header on wednesday afternoon. That was not the case on Saturday.
Mid-Continent (8-22) pounded out 24 hits and 21 runs in just 12 innings of play on Saturday, sweeping a double-header from Lyon College (8-32). The Cougars took game one with a 9-1 win in five innings, before out-slugging the Scots in game two 12-7.
Three of the first four Mid-Continent hitters recorded base hits, and Alyssa Ybarra followed with a double that drove in two as a part of a three run first inning for Mid-Continent. The Cougars took advantage of a Lyon error in the third, plating two runs to stretch their lead to 5-0, doing the same in the fourth to push their lead to 7-0. Lyon got on the board with a run in the top of the fifth, but in the bottom, Christina Winsett, Colby Smith, and Anna Maziarka notched three straight singles, with Winsett and Smith scoring, ending the game as a 9-1 run-rule victory for Mid-Continent.
Lindsey Rucker allowed just one unearned run in five innings, yielding three hits and striking out one in the complere game victory. She defeated Lauren Mills who allowed all nine runs - though only five were earned - on 13 hits in four innings. Ybarra, Lindsey Rucker, and Jessica Temple each picked up two RBIs in the game, Colby Smith was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, Maziarka went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, Rachel Brueggeman was 2-for-2 with two runs, and Ybarra was 2-for-3 with a double at the plate.
Lyon started better in game two, using three Mid-Continent errors to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but the Cougars came right back. Rachel Brueggeman (5) launched a three-run homer to center with one out in the inning, giving Mid-Continent the 3-2 lead, which they took into the top of the third inning. In that stanza, Lyon struck to regain the lead on three straight singles to open the inning, followed by a two-run homer from Whitney Keith to put the Scots ahead 6-3. Marissa Nickerson drove in Randi Eveans in the bottom of the fourth with a single, then Rucker followed with her first career homer, pulling the first pitch she saw for a three-run shot to right that put Mid-Continent back in front 7-6. Keith scored an unearned tally for the Scots in the fifth to tie the game, but in the bottom of the sixth, Mid-Continent delivered the knockout blow. Nickerson doubled home Winsett and Temple, Maziarka knocked in Nickerson with a two-base hit, and Kelsey Tramel put the exclamation point on the day, blasting her second homer of the season to cap a five-run outburst and give Mid-Continent their final margin of victory, 12-7.
Rucker (7-13) allowed one unearned run in four and one-third innings of relief, yielding only two hits in that span while striking out three. Mills (7-16) again took the loss, as the Cougars touched her up for 12 earned runs on 11 hits in six innings. Tramel posted a 3-for-4 effort in the game with the two-run home run and two runs scored; Winsett and Nickerson each had two hits; and Nickerson, Rucker, and Brueggeman each drove in three runs in the game.
Mid-Continent will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon, heading north to Oakland City, Ind. to take on the Lady Oaks of Oakland City University (12-6) in a double-header scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
