COYLE, Okla. - Dodging the raindrops on Tuesday afternoon, the Mid-America Christian University softball team headed north of the Oklahoma City area to take on the Langston University Lions - a team which will be joining the Sooner Athletic Conference in 2019. The field was not playable at Langston, so the games were moved to Coyle High School, and the Evangels adjusted to the change well.
MACU (6-2) took a double-header sweep from Langston (3-3), taking game one 1-0 in eight innings and wholloping the Lions in the second contest 10-1 in six frames.
Game one was a pitchers' duel from the start. Regan Martin took the ball for the Lady Evangels, and Kenya Grauberger toed the slab for the Lions, and neither gave an inch. The two pitchers retired their opponents in order a combined seven times in the first five innings, and neither team had two runners on base at the same time in the first seven frames. The teams each had two hits in regulation, but neither team got a runner to third in the first seven stanzas, and the game remained scoreless into extra innings.
MACU stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth with Brianna Glass running for Alanna Leisy at second as the runner in the international tiebreaker, and they were nearly unable to convert the free base runner into a tally. That's when Jessica Holt stepped into the box. Holt blooped a single to left-center, and Glass scampered home to give MACU the 1-0 lead.
That was all Martin needed, and she wasted no time in going out and sitting the Lions down in order in the eighth with a pair of strikeouts, and MACU took their second extra inning win of the season, 1-0.
Martin (2-1) earned her first shutout of her collegiate career, as she scattered two hits and struck out four in eight innings of work. Grauberger (1-2) allowed only the one run - which was charged to the team - on three hits and one walk in eight innings with four strikeouts.
MACU used the momentum from game one to come out in game two and take control early. Hanna Harris singled home Ribbin Anderson in the top of the first frame, and the Evangels never looked back. The Evangels scored twice more in the third, and a Larie Amos homer highlighted a two run fifth as MACU built a 5-0 lead.
The Lady Evangels broke the game open in the top of the sixth. MACU scored five times in the frame, with Harris notching an RBI-single and Amber O'Bryant knocking home a pair of runs with a double to cap the scoring for MACU. Langston scratched across one run in the bottom of the sixth, but Mid-America held off any further production and won the game on the run-rule, 10-1 in six innings.
Amos (2-0) earned her second win of the season, tossing four shutout innings and allowing only one hit while striking out four. Hannah Sheffield (2-1) took the loss, yielding eight runs - though only four were earned - on 14 hits in five innings of work.
Harris was 3-for-4 with a run and two RBIs in the game, Hannah Salmon was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, and Stella Millican posted a 3-for-3 afternoon with a run. Anderson singled twice and scored two runs, O'Bryans was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and Amos was 2-for-3 with a honer and two runs scored. MACU pounded out 17 hits in the game.
MACU will be back in action on Thursday, March 8 when they head to Muskogee, Oklahoma to open their Sooner Athletic Conference schedule at Bacone College (4-10, 1-1 SAC) at 1 p.m.
