By: Kaleb Center
CSC Sports Information
Chadron State College pitchers held the hottest-hitting team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to only .254 on Saturday, but the visiting Colorado Mesa University Mavericks still escaped with a pair of wins at CSC Softball Field.
The Eagles played their first true home games after nine weeks of traveling. It is only the second weekend this season the Mavericks have played a game at its opponent’s home field.
CSC pitcher Cassidy Horn, who started both games, went seven innings in the noon game, giving up only four hits. However one of those was a three-run shot to center field by junior first baseman Annmarie Torres, who entered the series the fifth-best batter in NCAA Division II with the No. 1 on-base percentage.
CMU scored two in the first inning without recording a base hit, as the team led off with a hit batter and a walk, and received two advances on passed balls and two more on fielding errors.
The Mavericks added one more run for good measure in the seventh on a pair of doubles, winning 6-0. Senior Kimbri Herring pitched a three-hit, complete game shutout.
In the late afternoon game, weather marred the pace. There was one delay of more than 30 minutes before the sixth inning after a couple of lightning strikes in the area, while later on in the seventh the rain came on hard, putting the contest back another 15 minutes or so.
Chadron State got out in front of the Mavericks’ senior pitcher McKenzie Surface, undefeated so far on the season, with five hits in the first inning to go up 3-0. Bailey Marvel singled, Alyssa Geist doubled, and Haleigh Hoefs batted them both in with a base hit for two runs. Later Hoefs scored on a single by Angelica Maples.
CMU got two runs back in the second, but an Ellie Owens two-RBI double pushed the Eagles lead back out to 5-2 in the third.
In the fourth, CMU led off with a solo home run, part of a five-hit, six-run inning to take the lead at 8-5. That prompted the first pitching change of the
Kayla Michel homered for two runs in the fifth, and the Eagles made it a nail-biter once again. However, CSC couldn’t keep up the scoring pace for the final two innings and the Mavericks closed it out with four more runs to finish ahead 12-7.
Herring, who entered in the fourth inning for the Mavericks, earned her second pitching win of the day by allowing only two runs on three hits in game two of the series for a Saturday total of six hits in 11 innings.
Hoefs once again led the way for CSC at the plate, batting 4-for-6 with two RBI and scoring three times. She also walked once.
Michel also fared well, hitting 3-for-7 with the Eagles’ only homer of the day. She had the only sacrifice bunt as well.
CMU improved to 29-6 (22-3 RMAC) while CSC fell to 10-25 (7-18 RMAC). The two sides return to CSC Softball Field on Sunday for another doubleheader.