By: Kaleb Center
CSC Sports Information
Chadron State College pitchers held the visiting Colorado Mesa University Mavericks below their season batting average, as a team, for the second straight day, however CMU sophomore designated player Alexa Samuels clinched the sweep for her team in the top of the fifth, in Sunday’s game four of the series, when she homered for two runs. The Mavericks improved to 31-6, and 24-3 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference softball, to remain in command of the league standings by roughly two games. Meanwhile CSC fell to 10-26 (7-20 RMAC).
The Eagles are only about a game and a half behind eighth-place Black Hills State, who they meet at home the final week of the season, although Chadron State’s record has them currently at the bottom of a six-car pileup in the bottom half of the league. Three weekends, or 12 games, remain in the conference schedule, with CSC needing to pass three of its final four opponents for postseason play.
Game three, which started Sunday morning, went the Mavericks’ way when they powered out to a 14-4 lead with a 13-run third inning. CSC gave up a leadoff walk and a base on error to start the inning, before CMU slugger Annemarie Torres doubled to start the avalanche for her team.
Among the six walks in the inning in CMU’s favor, one occurred in a rare instance where starting pitcher Cassidy Horn left the game with no outs, then re-entered after one-third inning. Upon re-entry, she was assessed four balls as a penalty for throwing illegal warmup pitches which resulted in a bases-loaded walk.
The Mavericks ended up with a 16-4 win in five innings, with three doubles and a home run in the game. Herring took the win to go to 14-3, while Horn fell to 5-6.
Later, Chadron State looked to be in control, for once, of the series’ final game, after leading the first four innings. Through four, CSC had answered every volley by the other side’s offense when Kayla Michel’s two-RBI single in the first put the Eagles up 2-1, and then Haleigh Hoefs followed with another two-RBI shot in the second to go with Bailey Rominger’s bases loaded walk to go up 4-3.
Sophomore pitcher Gabby Russell survived the first two innings with only three runs on the board for the Mavs on five hits. She went deep into the fifth without giving up another hit, until an error with two outs caused another CMU run to score and tie it 4-4. Samuels homered with one on the basepaths to go up 6-4, which was the final score.
Russell probably came her closest all season to earning a win, instead falling to 0-8. CMU’s McKenzie Surface, whom the Eagles battered on Saturday, was nearly flawless in her five innings of relief on Sunday, with only a walk against her, earning the win and remaining undefeated (13-0).
Chadron State remains at home, tentatively, while Dixie State University prepares to visit next weekend. The Trailblazers, recently announced as future NCAA Division I members, were receiving votes in the national poll earlier in the season but lost series to Colorado Mesa and Colorado School of Mines to fall to fourth in the RMAC.