The Northwest Missouri State softball team split the first two games of their four game weekend Friday as the Bearcats took game one 3-2 while Nebraska-Kearney was able to win game two 3-1.
Jenna Creger went the distance pitching all 10 innings for Northwest eventually securing her ninth victory of the season. Creger gave up six hits and allowed two earned runs while collecting seven strikeouts.
Northwest remained scoreless until the top of the fifth inning. Stephanie Price led off by getting hit with her conference leading 10th hit by pitch of the season and later scored on an error by the shortstop. Rachel Schmitz was able to knock in Kristine Labertew with a single up the middle to put her team up 2-0.
UNK did not plate a run until the bottom of the seventh inning as they managed to scratch two runs across to tie the game up and send it into extra innings.
In the 10th inning International tie-breaker rules were put in place and Jordan Ereth started the inning on second base. Hailee Hendricks hit a double to left center field that scored Ereth and put Northwest up 3-2.
The Bearcat defense turned a big double play in the bottom half of the inning, throwing out the potential tying run at the plate to retain the lead. Hendricks caught a line drive to end the ball game leaving a runner at second base for the 3-2 victory.
Abbie Vitosh took the circle for Northwest in game two. Vitosh was tagged with the loss moving her record to 6-3 on the season.
The Bearcats scored first in the second inning when Labertew scored from third off a Kylie Cantrell single to center field. UNK answered back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning knotting the game at 1-1.
Nebraska-Kearney added one run in the third inning and another in the sixth inning. Northwest was unable to get any more runs across as they stranded five base runners through seven innings dropping game two 3-1.
The Bearcats move to 19-9 on the season and 7-5 in conference play. Head Coach Ryan Anderson’s team will be back on the road again Saturday traveling to Hays, Kan. to take on Fort Hays State, who is currently the top team in the MIAA. First pitch in game one is scheduled for noon with game two set to follow.
— NWMSU Sports Information —