FHSU Athletics
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State saw its 2025 softball season come to an end in the opening round of the MIAA Championship Tournament. The No. 9 seed Tigers lost 7-1 to No. 8 seed Emporia State on Fleharty Family FIeld. The Hornets used a 5-run third inning to move to 31-22 overall and advance to Thursday's semifinals. The Tigers closed the season at 24-21 overall.
Both starting pitchers coasted through the first two innings, but ran into some trouble in the third. A walk and single put runners at first and second for the Tigers with one out, but they could not push any runs across against Hornet starter Jordan Harrison. In the bottom half of the inning, three well-placed singles set up a bases-loaded opportunity for the Hornets with one out. FHSU starter Savanah Egger got a fielder's choice grounder for the second out, but then on a 3-2 battle at the plate, Brooke Flewelling took a borderline pitch on the inside corner for a ball to push the first run across. Right after that, the floodgates opened as a bases-clearing double by Ally Miller made it 4-0 and then a single by Juliana De Luna drove a fifth run in for the inning.
Morgan Schmidt relieved for the final 3 1/3 innings for FHSU, allowing two more runs on three hits. Those runs came in the fifth, pushing the Hornet lead to 7-0. The Tigers finally got on the board in the seventh when Lilly Mohr tripled off the wall in right field and her sister Lexi Mohr drove her in with a sacrifice fly.
The Tigers had five players all finish with one hit in the game. Miller led ESU with two of her team's nine hits in the game. Egger and Schmidt each struck out two. Harrison threw 5 innings in her start for ESU, allowing three hits with two strikeouts. Gracie Rabe threw the final 2.0 innings and allowed a run on two hits. Harrison moved to 16-7 on the season with the win.
The Tigers won over 20 games for the fifth straight year and reached at least 24 in a season for the fifth time since 2019.
Emporia State moved on to the tournament quarterfinals against No. 1 seed and No. 4 nationally ranked Central Oklahoma on Thursday (May 1).