Northwest Missouri State senior Cassie Lowell shot an opening round 80 at the NCAA Central Region Super Regional on Sunday at the Tartan Park Golf Course.
Lowell is tied for 26th overall and is third among the four individual players.
Round two of the super regional will begin Monday morning with the final round scheduled for Tuesday.
— Northwest Sports Information —
The Missouri Western softball team captured its first even MIAA Tournament championship Saturday in Overland Park as they defeated Northeastern State, 12-0. The Griffons scored seven, 7th inning runs on their way to the victory. The win was Jackie Bishop’s 25th of the season which ties her career high for victories in a season.
The Griffons are 38-16 on the season and will play next weekend in the NCAA Central Regional which will be announced on Monday, May 5 at 9:00 am. There will be a watch party in the KCP&L Theater Room in the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex.
Bishop threw a one-hitter while striking out 10 and walking just one. The Griffons had 12 hits in the contest with two coming from Kat Steponovich, Michelle Stevenson and Morgan Rathmann.
Missouri Western opened up the scoring in the second inning when Steponovich led off with a single down the right field line and advanced to second on single by Katie Klosterman to second base. Stevenson then hit a single scoring Steponovich and then Klosterman scored on an RBI groundout by Rathmann giving the Griffons the 2-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the 5th inning when Rathmann blasted a two run homer over left center giving the Griffons the 4-0 lead. Later in the inning Bre Fleschner scored on a Gillaspy groundout making the lead 5-0 after five.
In the 7th the Griffons exploded for seven runs which was capped by back-to-back pinch hit home runs by Kailey Green and Sydney McCune. Sydney Washington and Brooke Schaben also had RBI hits in the innings.
Bishop struck out the final batter of the game giving the Griffons their first tournament title in history.
The RiverHawks end their season with a 29-30 overall record. Kayce Wooldridge went all six innings giving up eight hits and four earned runs. She falls to 17-14 on the season. Saharra Henson had the lone hit for the RiverHawks.
— MWSU Sports Information —
The Missouri Western baseball team got a walk off single by senior outfielder David Chew advancing them to the final four of the MIAA Tournament next weekend in Springfield, Mo. Chew singled in Cody Childs in the bottom of the 10th giving the Griffons the 5-4 victory over Southwest Baptist. With the victory the Griffons improve to 30-18 on the season.
Missouri Western jumped on top early, taking a 1-0 lead after the first inning of play. Cody Childs homered down the left field line helping the Griffons strike first. The Bearcats responded in the second, plating two runs taking a 2-1 lead. Ross Wolfe and Chance Wolfe led the inning off with back-to-back singles. After a Missouri Western error put the runners on second and third, Zach Pirrello doubled to right field to put SBU on top. The Bearcats added to their lead in the third when Jake Vore scored on a Ross Wolfe fielder’s choice to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Griffons responded right back in the bottom half of the inning with two runs tying the game at 3-3. The Griffons got RBI hits from Chew and Will Carter in the inning which scored Childs and Chew.
Both the Bearcats and the Griffons settled down, with no runs being scored over the next three innings. The Bearcats broke the tie in the top of the seventh when Tyler Hampton singled home Bo Helsel to give SBU a 4-3 lead. Missouri Western responded right back, knotting the game up at 4-4 on an RBI double by Trevor LaHonta scoring Jake Schrader.
The game would go to extra innings and in the bottom of the 10th, Childs singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch setting him up to score on the Chew single giving the Griffons the victory.
The Griffons had 12 hits with Childs going 4-for-5 with three runs scored and Chew going 3-for-5 with one run scored and two RBI. Mason Queen picked up the victory going three innings in relief giving up just one hit with two strikeouts. He improved to 4-4 with the victory.
The Griffons will take on the winner of the University of Central Missouri and Northeastern State series on Thursday, May 8 in Springfield, Mo. First pitch is scheduled for 11 am.
Southwest Baptist had 15 hits with Pirrello going 3-for-5. Sam Vergara got the loss going three innings giving up four hits and one earned run. He falls to 5-2 on the season.
The Bearcats concluded the most successful season in school history, coming away with the most wins and MIAA wins ever. SBU also advanced to their first MIAA Tournament since the 1999. SBU finished the season with a 29-24 record while finishing 24-15 in the MIAA.
— MWSU Sports Information —
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Tigers’ Drew Smyly went from the bullpen to tossing seven shutout innings as a starter. Nick Castellanos is tied with Miguel Cabrera for the team lead in RBIs.
Not exactly what Detroit manager Brad Ausmus expected at the start of the season.
Both of those pleasant surprises factored into a 9-2 rout of the Royals on Saturday night. Smyly picked up where fellow starter Rick Porcello left off by keeping Kansas City off the scoreboard, and Castellanos drove in three runs before Detroit tacked on the final sixth in the ninth inning.
So far, Castellanos has driven in 17 runs — more than Victor Martinez, Torii Hunter, Ian Kinsler and everybody else on the Tigers that doesn’t have an MVP award to his credit.
“I don’t know that would have been my guess,” Ausmus said, “but this is fine. I’m glad.”
Porcello and the Tigers bullpen retired the final 18 hitters in an 8-2 victory the previous night, and Smyly (2-1) retired the first four he faced. After a issuing a walk to Alex Gordon, the former reliever then retired the next six in a dominant performance.
Smyly wound up allowing two hits and two walks before giving way to Joba Chamberlain, who threw a perfect eighth. Phil Coke allowed two runs in the ninth to lose the shutout.
The win was the Tigers’ fifth straight over Kansas City.
“Smyly was outstanding,” Ausmus said. “I think he had nine days since his last start. Pitch count wasn’t a factor. I just decided he had done his job.”
Duffy moved from the bullpen back to the rotation in place of Bruce Chen, who went on the disabled list this week with a bulging disc in his back. Duffy was on a pitch count and wound up lasting just four innings, allowing two hits and walking four while throwing 75 pitches.
“Any time we lose, I’m not going to be happy with an outing,” he said. “But I felt like I kept my team in the game. I pounded the strike zone much as I could.”
Kansas City played without catcher Salvador Perez, who was given the night off after fouling a pitch off his shin in the series opener. Royals manager Ned Yost said he expects the All-Star to be back in the lineup Sunday — though they sure could have used his bat in this one.
The only hits the Royals could muster off Smyly came on Eric Hosmer’s double in the fourth and a single in the fifth by Danny Valencia, who was thrown out trying to reach second.
“These things turn around quick. You look at Detroit’s club and they are swinging the bats really good, all of them. They’re hot right now,” Yost said. “They’ve got good pitching, which attributes to some of it. But we think we’re a better offensive club than we’ve shown so far.”
Meanwhile, the Tigers took advantage of Duffy’s erratic ways.
The left-hander walked the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and Castellanos followed with a liner to left that Alex Gordon caught on the run. But rather than throw home immediately, the Gold Glove winner hesitated, and that gave Miguel Cabrera time to score.
In the sixth, reliever Louis Coleman allowed a double to Cabrera and intentionally walked Victor Martinez, who has been hot all series. Herrera came in and Castellanos ripped a double to right, driving in both runs while ending a 0-for-15 slump.
That was plenty of support for Smyly, who made 63 appearances out of the bullpen last season and two this season, but who may be firmly establishing himself as the fifth starter.
The victory was Smyly’s first as a starter since beating the Royals on July 6, 2012.
“He was throwing strikes,” Ausmus said. “He seemed to be using all his pitches, which is important as a starter. He pitched really well.”
— Associated Press —
CHICAGO (AP) — Jake Arrieta tried to tamper his pregame butterflies.
Making his big league season debut following shoulder stiffness, Arrieta struck out seven in 5 1/3 shutout innings Saturday as the Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 for their first three-game winning streak this season.
Arrieta said pitching at Wrigley Field has become a special experience for him dating to his Cubs debut last season, also was against the Cardinals.
Arrieta walked two and threw 82 pitches. The Cardinals put five runners on base through the first three innings.
“Command of my sinker down in the zone was working really good, establishing the curveball early in the game,” he said. “The more you do that with secondary stuff, the less they can eliminate certain pitches later in the game. That’s kind of what we had going for us.”
Chicago’s bullpen combined for three-hit relief, finishing a seven-hitter. Brian Schlitter (1-0) got two outs for the win, and Hector Rondon worked around a pair of leadoff singles in the ninth for his third save.
Junior Lake and Anthony Rizzo homered for the Cubs, who hadn’t won three straight a series sweep at San Francisco last July 26-28.
A day after the Cubs defeated Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha (2-3) allowed two runs, five hits and three walks in six innings.
Lake hit a two-run homer in the sixth for a 2-0 lead. He also doubled on a 3-for-3 afternoon.
“It’s just frustrating, really,” Wacha said. “I served one up there, and they go up two runs. You just can’t afford that in that situation.”
Rizzo led off the eighth with sixth home run, and third in three games. He connected on the first pitch he saw from Randy Choate.
“We know we’re a good team,” Rizzo said. “It’s just about getting the wins. Today we got the win. The last few days we’ve gotten a win. It’s just about staying with it, keep battling.”
Yadier Molina and Jhonny Peralta opened the ninth with singles off Rondon. But he got Jon Jay to hit into a double play and struck out Mark Ellis.
St. Louis, which stranded eight runners, has scored two runs or fewer in seven of its last 13 games.
Arrieta struck out Molina to strand runners on the corners in first. The Cardinals put two on with no outs in the second before Greg Garcia struck out, Wacha grounded out and shortstop Starlin Castro made an over-the-shoulder catch on Matt Carpenter’s popup.
“Right now, it’s not looking like what we want it to look like,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “Whatever we’re doing is not working, so we have to figure it out and figure it out fast.”
— Associated Press —
Jackie Bishop ended a dominate performance by striking out her career best 17th batter in the top of the 7th inning with the tying run on second picking up the 3-1 victory and advancing to the MIAA Softball Tournament Championship. Missouri Western advances to the MIAA Tournament Championship for the first time since 2012 and they’re now 37-16 on the season.
In game that started out as a pitcher’s duel Missouri Western escaped with a 3-1 victory over Northeastern State. The win puts MWSU in Saturday’s championship game and send Northeastern State to tonight’s game against top seed Emporia State.
After walking the first batter of the game, Bishop went on to strikeout 10 straight RiverHawks before a pop up my Northeastern State. The only hit either pitcher gave through six innings was in the first when Tiffany Gillaspy got a single extending her hitting streak to 21 games.
After the RiverHawks got a two out double by Lauren Lanary and scored on a single by Madison Reed giving them a 1-0 lead in the top of the 6th. In the bottom of the 6th the Griffons pieced together sive hits and took advantage of one NSU error. Morgan Rathmann homered starting the scoring in the sixth and Bre Fleschner and Sydney Washington scored runs to put the Griffons ahead.
In the circle Bishop went seven innings allowing four hits and only one earned run while striking out 17 on the afternoon. She improves to 24-8 on the season. Kayce Wooldridge went six innings for NSU striking out three and allowing just six hits and one earned run.
— MWSU Sports Information —
The Missouri Western baseball team picked up the second game of its three-game opening round tournament match against Southwest Baptist to send it to the final day.
The Griffons defeated the Bearcats 10-5.
Just like in game one, the Griffons jumped on the board early with a four-run second inning.
David Chew started it off with a single to center field. After Will Carter grounded out to move Chew to second, the scoring began.
Mitch Thorman sent a double to left field to score Chew. Jake Schrader then doubled to left center to mark the score 2-0. Hunter Weiss singled to left field and drove in Schrader. After that, Ryan Degner singled to the same spot to score Weiss.
After a scoreless third inning, the Griffons added two runs in each the fourth and fifth innings.
Weiss’ double to left field was followed by Degner’s home run and mark the score 6-0. In the fifth inning, Southwest Baptist added five runs in the top of the fifth to pull within a run.
Christian Binger belted a homer over the left-field fence for the 3-run long ball. That happened after Ross Wolfe’s single to shortstop, which scored Bo Helsel for the Bearcats’ first run of the game. Chance Wolfe hit a double and scored the second run off of Drew Miller’s single up the middle.
In the bottom of the fifth, Schrader tripled to score Carter and advanced home after a throwing error by Southwest. That made the score 8-5.
A run each was added in the sixth and eighth by the Griffons to make it 10-5. Missouri Western had 16 hits with no errors and the Bearcats had nine hits with two errors.
Jake Jones picked up his sixth win after pitching five innings. Josh Lansangan got the save. Tim Collins fell to 5-5 for the Bearcats.
Degner finished 4-for-4 at the No. 1 hole with three RBI. Schrader went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Weiss went 3-for-4 and had an RBI.
The two teams play the third game Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner of that match advances to Springfield, Mo. for the semi-finals played at Hammons Field.
— MWSU Sports Information —
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Porcello is already in his sixth full season in the big leagues, which makes it all the easier to forget that the Tigers right-hander is still just 25 years old.
“I do think he’s still learning himself a little bit,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said after an 8-2 win over the Kansas City Royals, a game that Porcello dominated for seven innings.
“Rick has really matured dramatically over his time here,” Ausmus said. “You have to remember the guy is pretty young. You think he’s older because he’s been in the starting rotation.”
Porcello (4-1) gave up a sacrifice fly to Eric Hosmer, a solo homer to Billy Butler and little else Friday night. He wound up allowing four hits while striking out six without a walk.
“Throwing first-pitch strikes I think was the biggest key tonight,” he said. “Being ahead 0-1 instead of 1-0 is huge. You can go a lot of different ways when you do that.”
Victor Martinez had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs, and J.D. Martinez and Alex Avila also drove in two runs apiece as the Tigers won their fourth straight against the Royals.
Meanwhile, Shields (3-3) allowed eight runs — seven of them earned — on 12 hits, a walk and a hit batter in 6 1/3 innings. It was the worst outing for the Royals ace since last September, when Shields allowed 10 runs in another lousy start against the Tigers.
“I threw some good pitches. That’s a good hitting ball club over there,” he said. “I wasn’t locating my pitches. I was getting behind in the count. I didn’t do my job out there, bottom line. I’ve got to do a better job of getting outs. It’s just one of those games.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Royals also lost All-Star catcher Salvador Perez when he fouled a pitch off his shin in the seventh inning. He was listed as day to day with a bruise.
Shields first got into trouble in the second, when he loaded the bases but escaped the jam unscathed. But things only got worse in the third, when a single by Torii Hunter and back-to-back doubles by Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.
They never gave it back the rest of the game.
J.D. Martinez kept the onslaught going when he led off the fourth with a double, and Avila followed by hitting the first pitch of his at-bat for his first homer of the season. Detroit added another run later in the inning when Andrew Romine reached third on an error by the Royals’ Mike Moustakas, and then scored on a double-play groundout.
Butler provided the only bright spot the rest of the way for Kansas City, guiding a line drive over the fence in left field for his first homer of the season — and the first by any hitter batting in the cleanup spot in the Royals lineup.
“I knew I hit it good. I didn’t know if it was high enough to get out,” Butler said. “I knew I hit it hard, but didn’t hit it very high. I couldn’t see if it was fair or foul. I knew it was really close, too.”
Shields was finally pulled in the seventh, allowing another run and leaving the bases loaded while recording one out. Reliever Kelvin Herrera gave up a double to J.D. Martinez that brought in two more runs and gave the Tigers an 8-2 lead.
That was plenty of support for Porcello, who had been miserable in the month of April until this season, when he went 3-1 with a 3.96 ERA. He kept that momentum going against Kansas City, a team he oddly never faced last season, retiring his final 12 batters.
“He’s been throwing the ball great all season long,” Victor Martinez said. “He’s showing he’s young but he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s giving us a great chance to win ballgames.”
— Associated Press —
Point guard Devonte’ Graham has signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) to play men’s basketball at Kansas, KU head coach Bill Self announced Friday.
A 6-2, 175-pound guard from Raleigh, North Carolina, Graham originally signed a NLI at Appalachian State in November 2012. He did not enroll at Appalachian State and spent the 2013-14 season at Brewster Academy prep school in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Following a coaching change at Appalachian State, Graham was granted his NLI release in April 2014.
“We’ve had our fair share of guys from Brewster over the years, primarily Naadir (Tharpe) and Thomas (Robinson),” Self said. “We’re very familiar with that program. We certainly solidified our situation in the backcourt by bringing in a quality guy and I think Devonte’ is one of the premier point guards in the country. Jason Smith is not a good coach, he’s a great coach. He’s been at Brewster for a number of years and has coached many, many great ones. He definitely made me feel Devonte’ is as good as any he has had in the backcourt.”
Graham averaged 17.2 points and 5.0 assists per game and led Brewster to the national prep championship and New England championship in 2013-14. Following being released from Appalachian State, Graham’s stock immediately rose as he went from being unranked to No. 36 in the final 2014 rankings by Rivals.com.
“I think Devonte’ will be an immediate impact guy for us,” Self said. “That’s not to take away from the other guards we have but this is a situation that we just got a lot better. He comes from very good high school and prep school programs and an exceptional AAU program in Gardner Rose. After he and his mother (Dewanna King) came here on their recruiting visit, it was a situation we felt like he and she connected with everybody here and I think he will be a great leader for our program.”
Prior to Brewster Academy, Graham led Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C., to the state championship game where he averaged 15.7 points and 5.4 assists and a 26-6 record in 2012-13. Graham, who was coached by Jeff Ferrell while at Broughton, averaged 14.8 points, 4.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game as a junior.
— KU Sports Information —
CHICAGO (AP) — Anthony Rizzo wasted little time in getting to Adam Wainwright.
Rizzo hit a two-run single in the first that ended Wainwright’s scoreless streak at 25 innings, and the Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 Friday for their third win in four games.
“I’m not trying to do too much,” Rizzo said. “See the ball and hit it, really try to swing at the pitches I want to hit, not pitcher’s pitches. Especially with Wainwright, his stuff is so good he’s going to eat you alive.”
Wainwright (5-2) had allowed six runs in 45 innings coming in, but the Cubs matched the runs total in just five innings against the St. Louis ace, who gave up 10 hits. His ERA rose from 1.20 to 2.16.
“They did a nice job of spoiling some pitches,” Cubs manager Rick Renteria said of his batters. “You’ve got to give them all the credit. They grinded out some at-bats today and reaped some benefits.”
Wainwright had been 6-0 in 12 previous starts and five relief appearances at Wrigley Field.
“There were certain pitches today I didn’t have good command over,” he said. “My curveball was kind of sporadic in the zone and out of the zone, which is pretty rare for me. It’s a funny game. Today was not my day. I accept that and take responsibility for today and move on.”
The scoreless streak was one inning shy of the career high for Wainwright, who had not allowed an extra-base hit since April 12 against the Cubs in St. Louis.
“He’s been incredibly consistent through this season so far. … You can see pitches were just on the edge and not where he wanted them or weren’t getting called,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s a frustrating day when he knows our guys put some offense up for him and we just can’t stop them. He limited the damage and figured out ways to keep us in it. We had some chances.”
Rizzo added a leadoff home run in the fifth that put Chicago ahead 6-3. Welington Castillo had three doubles for Chicago, which sent the skidding Cardinals to their 10th loss in 16 games.
Travis Wood (2-3) gave up three runs — two earned — and six hits in seven innings but allowed just one runner in his final three innings. Justin Grimm gave up Jhonny Peralta’s two-run homer in the eighth, and Hector Rondon pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.
Cubs center fielder Ryan Sweeney made a catch on the run in the eighth on a drive to right-center by Allen Craig. Sweeney injured his right hamstring and was replaced by Emilio Bonifacio, who moved from second.
“It was great determination,” Renteria said. “Hammy’s hurt.”
St. Louis overcame its early deficit, tying the game in the third when Matt Carpenter singled in a run and scored on Peralta’s double.
Chicago loaded the bases in the bottom half on a pair of walks around Starlin Castro’s single. Ryan Sweeney drove in the go-ahead run with a weak grounder to second that allowed Rizzo to score from third, and Castillo followed with a two-out, two-run double.
Castro’s throwing error from shortstop on Randal Grichuk’s grounder allowed Yadier Molina to score from third and cut the deficit to 5-3 in the fourth.
— Associated Press —
