EDMOND, Okla. — Southern Nazarene Softball continued their stretch of tournaments, this time, heading locally to Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma Christian's Softball Classic in Edmond. The Storm split the day, dominating the Maryville Saints (0-1, 0-0 GLVC) 8-1, but dropped their contest with the No. 19 Rogers State Hillcats (6-1, 0-0 MIAA), 8-0.
Game 1 - Maryville
The Storm wasted no time making some noise in Edmond early, starting with
Liana Heshiki's ground out that advanced Kennedi Morelock home.
Hailey Evans followed with single to right field that plated
Emma Green, quickly moving ahead 2-0 in the first inning.
Emma Swearingen ended the scoring in the opening inning with a single through the left side, rewarding Evans with the trip home, getting ahead 3-0 before the final out of the inning.
After a scoreless second inning between both teams, SNU contiued to bring in more runs, two in the third inning from a
Sydney Sundbye triple that brought home Swearingen and
Mikayla Oaks.
The Saints finally erased their 0 on the scoreboard in the top of fourth with a single to left field that scored the runner on third base, closing SNU's lead down to four at 5-1. Starting pitcher
Janie Worthington kept the Maryville offense at bay up to that point, only allowing just two hits and one run.
Heshiki and Evans teamed up for two more runs for the Storm, delivering a SAC fly and a single to right field, bumping SNU ahead even further to 7-1 at the end of the fourth inning.
The Saints continued to have hitting troubles against Worthington as she left Maryville hitless in the top of the fifth inning. Southern Nazarene posted a few hits in the bottom fifth, but were never able to send anyone home, heading into the sixth inning still head by six runs.
Maddie Southerland subbed into the contest to relieve Worthington in the sixth inning, and had incredible start, allowing the Saints just one hit. The Storm continued their dominance in the bottom of the sixth after a stolen base and a Saints error allowed
Graysen Stanley to make the trot home for the 8-1 lead.
Southerland kept the pitching game strong for the Storm and delivered another single-hit, zero run inning to Maryville, which ultimately finalized the win for the Storm who claimed the final 8-1 victory of the Saints.
Worthington pitched an excellent game with 5.2 innings pitched, eight strikeouts, and only allowing just two hits inside the circle.
Game 2 - Rogers State
Southern Nazarene is not new to the Rogers State matchup, stunning the Hillcats by a a walk-off homer at the same tournament last year when Rogers State was the No. 1 team in the nation.
The now 19th ranked Hillcats were the first to get on the board Friday in the opening inning, singling through the right side to send a runner home for the 1-0 score. The Storm were unable to get anything going in their first at-bat, leaving more room for Rogers State to catch fire in the second inning, tacking on two more runs for the 3-0 lead.
An SNU error pushed the Hillcats to even more runs when two Rogers runners were able to sneak across home plate for the 5-0 advantage. The Rogers State offense proved to be unstoppable, cranking out a 3-RBI homer to explode their lead to 8-0, even with an SNU pitching change.
The Hillcats reached a cold spell before they called the game at five innings, leading to No. 19 Roger State's ultimate 8-0 victory.
Up Next
Southern Nazarene will have two more games at the UCO/OC Classic tomorrow, playing Pittsburg State at 11 a.m. and Central Oklahoma at 1:30 p.m.
