Softball Goes 3-3 at Emporia

March 15, 2009

EMPORIA, Kan. - Southwestern Oklahoma State University battled some of the top softball playing schools in the region on even terms going 3-3 at the recently completed Emporia State Invitational. The Bulldogs played six teams from the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and for the second time this year finished in a 3-3 draw.

SWOSU defeated the host, Emporia State, 8-4, on Friday and then were beaten 6-5 by Nebraska-Omaha. The Bulldogs won both games Saturday by identical 5-2 scores against Truman State and Southwest Baptist. On Sunday, SWOSU was beaten twice losing to Emporia 3-1 and in the final game to Washburn 6-3.

The Bulldogs, now 10-16 on the year, will resume Lone Star Conference North Division play Wednesday at the University of Central Oklahoma. The same two teams will play a doubleheader in Weatherford on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.

In the 8-4 win against Emporia on Friday, SWOSU jumped out to a 7-0 lead after a seven-run second inning. Stacy Creger and Kristina Davis each drove in two runs with singles in the inning.

The Bulldogs added another in the seventh for good measure when Brittany Strickland smashed her second home run of the season to put SWOSU ahead 8-3.

Kaci Carpenter got the win allowing just one run in five innings of work. She struck out two batters and scattered two hits to improve her record to 3-1.

Against Nebraska-Omaha, SWOSU carried a 4-2 lead after four and one-half innings only to see it slip away. UNO scored a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth inning to take a 6-4 lead. SWOSU nearly forced extra innings by when Davis hit a one-out single that scored Laiken Lester to make it 6-5. However, no other run would cross the plate as SWOSU's next two batters recorded outs.

In the 5-2 victory Saturday over Southwest Baptist, freshman pitcher Katie Raines was the star. She went the distance for the third time this season. She worked seven innings, allowed just three hits and two unearned runs. She improved 3-5 on the year. Lester was the offensive star collecting three of SWOSU's eight hits while scoring twice.

In the win against Truman, SWOSU had a number of players take on a leading role. Creger's two-run homer in the sixth put the Bulldogs ahead 2-1 before Truman pulled even and sent the game into extra innings. In the eighth, SWOSU took advantage of a series of wild pitches and a throwing errors to score three runs, all of which were unearned. Carpenter picked up her second win of the weekend by throwing three innings of solid relief.  She allowed no hits and gave up only one unearned run.

SWOSU was not as fortunate against Emporia the second time around as the Hornets rallied for a 3-1 victory on Sunday. SWOSU's lone run came in the first when Sara Harwell drove in Creger with a two-out single. The Hornets scored one in the fourth and two in the sixth to win 3-1.

In the final game of the tournament, SWOSU and Washburn carried a 3-3 tie into the seventh inning before the Lady Blues ended the game with a three-run homer by Amber Podschun.