FHSU Athletics
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State Softball fell twice to conference-leading Missouri Southern on Sunday at Fleharty Family Field. The Tigers scored only one run on the day, falling 6-0 and 9-1. Errors were also costly to the Tigers as only five of 15 runs scored by the Lions on the day were earned. FHSU moved to 24-13 overall, 6-4 in the MIAA, while MSSU moved to 26-7 overall and 11-1 in the MIAA.
Game 1: Missouri Southern 6, Fort Hays State 0
Missouri Southern took an early lead with back-to-back doubles in the second inning of what was shaping up to be a pitcher's duel in the opening contest. However, an error committed by the Tigers to open the fifth inning led to four unearned runs by the Lions. A triple cleared the bases for three of four runs in the inning. Morgan Schmidt relieved Savanah Egger with two outs in the fifth and went on to allow just one earned run in the sixth when the Lions tripled and singled.
The Tigers had the chance to break through early with back-to-back singles to open the game by Peyton Shepard and Sarah Tiffany. Each stole a bag to set up a golden opportunity with runners at second and third, but three straight strikeouts by the Tigers left the game scoreless.
From that point, the Tigers collected just three more hits off Missouri Southern starter Bailey Lacy, who threw a complete game shutout. She struck out eight Tigers and walked just one, moving to 8-0 on the season. Egger moved to 11-5 on the year, picking up two strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work. Morgan Schmidt struck out three and allowed two hits in her 2.1 innings of relief.
Game 2: Missouri Southern 9, Fort Hays State 1
A tough call against the Tigers in the first inning gave the Lions another early lead in the second contest. A throw to cut down the lead runner at the plate led Madison Pierce to a point where she caught the ball and immediately tagged the runner coming home. But the umpires got together and decided to call obstruction, though Pierce had no time to make an adjustment of where she was due to where the throw took her.
The Tigers bounced back in the bottom half of the inning for their only run of the day to knot the score at 1-1. Peyton Shepard led off with a chopper single and then a throwing error allowed Sarah Tiffany to reach base. Moments later, Shepard came in to score on a Regan Curry sacrifice fly RBI.
The Lions immediately took advantage of a mental miscue by the Tigers in the second. Adrianna Young doubled down the right field line and thought she had a triple, but teammate Ashlynn Williams put on the brakes in front of her at third base and left Young stranded between second and third. But in the Tigers' haste to try to get Young, Williams then broke for home and scored and Young moved over to third on the throw home. Emily Perry then put down a bunt single for an RBI and it was 3-1 Lions in the blink of an eye.
A two-out error by the Tigers in the fourth ballooned into six unearned runs by the Lions. The error allowed the first run of the inning to score, then a single scored another run. At that point, Bailey Carlson turned the ball over to Morgan Schmidt, who could not find an out and gave up three straight hits which plated three more runs. Emma Montoya relieved and surrendered a run-scoring double before eventually getting the final out of the inning. The three runs Schmidt allowed were earned on her total for the year, since she doesn't get the benefit of previous errors in the inning when she enters. But all three of her runs are team unearned runs, since the Tigers should have been out of the inning.
The Tigers put together three singles in the fifth off MSSU reliever Natalie Bates to load the bases, but a frustrating day ended with a strikeout as the Lions won by run rule in five innings, 9-1. The Tigers slipped back into a tie for fourth in the MIAA standings with Rogers State at 6-4, while the Lions took over the conference lead at 11-1.
The Tigers go on the road to Washburn and Emporia State next week on Friday and Saturday (Apr. 7-8), which starts a string of three straight conference weekends away from Hays.