OKLAHOMA CITY – After a two hour delay due to overnight rain and the associated field preparation necessary at Oklahoma City University's Ann Lacy Stadium, the Mid-America Christian University softball team got their 2019 postseason underway. The Evangels played a split double header winning both games.
MACU (31-16) opened the day with a win in a 1-0 pitchers' duel over Oklahoma Panhandle State University (29-20), and in the nightcap, MACU got the offense going well enough to take a 6-1 win from Langston University (17-33).
Game one was all about the performances of the pitchers, MACU's sophomore Regan Martin and OPSU's Lindsay Jacobs and Kaylor Battiest.
Martin retired the first 15 hitters of the game in order, and in that span, she not only struck out six, she did not allow a ball to leave the infield. On the other side of the ledger, Jacobs was not as dominant, but she was equally stingy. In the first four innings, MACU's Alanna Leisy had the game's only hit – a rocket off the plant foot of Jacobs with two out in the first, and Leisy, Martin, Hannah Salmon, and Brittany Ward drew walks as the only other base runners.
In the bottom of the second inning, Martin got the Evangels on the board. Salmon led off the inning with a free pass, and she stole second base before moving to third on a sacrifice from Ward for the inning's first out. Martin then grounded out to short to drive in the run and stake herself to a 1-0 lead.
That was all she needed in the game. Martin (16-5) scattered three hits and one walk in the game, and she earned her seventh shutout of the season. Martin fanned seven in the game. Jacobs (13-7) limited the Evangels to one hit and four walks in three and two-thirds innings, but she allowed the game's only run, so she was hit with the loss.
Alanna Leisy and Ribbin Dorado each had singles in the game, and Salmon drew a pair of free passes and scored a run.
MACU got the offense rolling in the middle innings of game two. Dorado scored on an error in the bottom of the third, and Jessica Holt scored moments later on a ground out from Amber O'Bryant to put MACU on top 2-0. Dorado added an RBI single in the fourth, and she later scored on an error, and in the bottom of the fifth, Taylor Bankston drove in a couple with a double.
McKenzie Smith (10-5) made that stand up. The junior right hander allowed only one unearned run on six hits, one walk, and two strikeouts in the complete game victory. Jasmyn Davis (10-11) threw the complete game for Langston, and she took the loss. Davis gave up six runs, four earned, on 12 MACU hits with one walk and one strikeout.
Hanna Harris singled three times in the game, and Hannah Salmon had a pair of base knocks as well. Dorado scored twice, and Bankston had a double and two RBIs.
MACU is scheduled to finish pool play with a game against NAIA #3 Oklahoma City University (50-6) on Friday at 3 p.m.
