WINFIELD, Kan. – Extra innings have gone well for the Mid-America Christian University softball team this season. The Lady Evangels have yet to allow a run in extra innings, and on Saturday, they successfully earned their third extra-innings win as they swept their twin bill at Southwestern College (Kan.).
MACU (12-2) improved to 3-1 in one-run games and 2-0 in run-rule contests, sweeping the Moundbuilders (8-9) with a 9-1 win in game one and a 4-3 win in extra innings in game two.
MACU got a pair of two-out singles from Hanna Harris and Larie Amos in the top of the first inning, but they were unable to produce a run, and though both teams threatened, neither team scored until the fourth frame.
Stella Millican doubled home Alanna Leisy with one out in the fourth inning to give MACU a 1-0 lead, and later in the frame, pinch runner Shelby Hicks scored on an error to double the Lady Evangel's lead. After a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth, the Lady Evangels broke the game open in the fifth.
Amos opened the inning with a triple to left field, and she scored four pitches later on a single from Hannah Salmon. With the bases loaded and one away, Ribbin Anderson singled to the shortstop to drive in Salmon and push MACU's lead to 4-0. Caitlin Butler followed with a single and two runs scored on that play, pushing the advantage to 6-0. Harris singled home two runs, and Amos followed with her second extra-base hit of the inning, an RBI double that scored Alexis Franks to cap the 7-run frame as MACU grabbed a 9-0 lead.
Southwestern scored once in the bottom of the fifth, but Amos stranded runners at the corners and MACU took the run-rule win 9-1.
Amos (3-0) allowed one earned run on four hits in the complete game win, and she struck out three and walked only one. Hannah Foltz (3-3) allowed eight runs – though only two were earned, on nine hits in four and two-thirds innings of work and was saddled with the loss.
Harris and Amos each had three hits in the game, with Amos finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Butler singled twice, and Millican had a double and a walk in three trips to the plate.
MACU fell behind on a run in the bottom of the first inning, but MACU came back with single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Harris singled home Ribbin Anderson to tie the game in the third inning, Jessica Johnson scored a run on an error in the fourth inning, and Leisy tripled home Salmon to give MACU a 3-1 lead in the fifth.
Southwestern took advantage of two errors from MACU in the sixth, scoring twice to tie the game at 3, but Caitlin Butler relieved Regan Martin to escape the jam, and the seventh inning went by scoreless, sending the game to extra innings.
Anderson recorded a one out single in the top of the eighth, and Jessica Holt – who was the runner placed at second base on the international tiebreaker – scored on an bobble from the left fielder to give MACU a 4-3 lead. Southwestern loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Butler got Alex Ritzema to bounce into a game-ending fielder's choice and the Lady Evangels took the win, 4-3.
Butler (1-0) earned the win, scattering three hits in two and one-third innings of relief with one walk and three strikeouts. MacKenzie Lyons (4-3) threw the complete game for Southwestern, yielding four runs on 15 hits in eight innings and she walked one batter.
Anderson tied a MACU record with five hits in the game, posting the first 5-hit game in MACU history since 2011. Harris, Amos, and Johnson each singled twice, and Leisy had the Lady Evangels' only extra base hit in the game – a triple.
MACU will return home to resume Sooner Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, March 13. The Lady Evangels will face a tough test on that afternoon when they welcome the NAIA #25 University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Drovers (14-1, 1-1 SAC). The twin-bill is scheduled for 2 p.m.
