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Season Stats (html format)
PITTSBURG, Kan. -- Both teams guessed Saturday's (April 5) softball games between Pitt State and Washburn would be close and that there was the potential to be a lot of runs. After all, the previous season the teams had played to extra inning games decided by a total of three runs, one ending in a 15-14 score. Though there were a lot of hits and quite a bit a scoring, the outcome was not as close as before. Pitt State won game one, 16-8 in five innings, but fell in game two, 5-3.
In each game Washburn scored all its runs in only one inning. The Ichabods took an 8-2 lead in the top of the second of game one that the Gorillas worked four innings to overcome. In game two, the visiting team broke a 1-0 Pitt State lead with a five-run fifth that the home team could not quite overcome.
Seven different Gorillas got hits in game one as the team totaled 15 hits overall. Cheslyn Mitchell and Tiffany Brown each had three hits. Brenna George, McKenzie Rynard, Nicole Nease and Jordan Bradshaw each earned two hits. George led the team with three RBI. Mitchell and Nease each added two RBI. Mitchell led the team with three runs scored, while George, Brown, Rynard, Nease and Bradshaw each scored two runs.
Pitt State led off the game with three straight base hits. A throwing error after the third hit allowed the first run to score. A second error moved Mitchell to third and she scored on a wild pitch, giving the Gorilla a 2-0 advantage.
Washburn had 12 hitters come to the plate in the second. Each of the eight runs they scored were unearned due to an error with two outs. After a triple with the bases loaded by the Ichabods Marina Quimby, Kylie Harpst came in the game to replace PSU starter Sam Grove in the circle. Harpst did not give up a hit the rest of the game.
Pitt State closed the gap from six runs to four in the bottom of the second. Bradshaw knocked a one-out triple to right. A George ground out brought her home. Mitchell's second home run of the season scored the fourth run of the game for the Gorillas.
PSU scored all its runs in the fourth inning with two outs. Brown started the rally with a solo homer to left, her 21st of the season. Rynard reached on a deep infield base hit. Nease hit the second home run of the inning for the Gorillas, and her seventh of the season, to put Pitt State within one, 8-7.
The Gorillas had their big inning in the fifth, as the team scored its final nine runs on the game on six hits and two Washburn errors. Washburn made two pitching changes in the inning. There were two runners left on base when the game ended to to the eight-run rule, as Kylie Guthier scored on a Brenna George sacrifice fly for the second out of the inning.
Game two was less dramatic. The two teams combined for 15 hits, eight by Washburn and seven from the Gorillas. Five of the Ichabods hits all game in the fifth inning, also the inning the team scored all its runs.
Pitt State scored first in the top of the second. Rynard reached on an infield base hit, moved to second on a walk and scored as the Ichabods mishandled a well-placed sacrifice bunt attempt by Kylie Guthier.
Washburn scored its five runs on five hits in the top of the fifth. All five runs were earned and were credited to Harpst who earned both decisions for the Gorillas on the day, moving her record to 5-6 on the season. Haleigh Sills replaced Harpst in the circle with two outs in the fifth. She gave up only one more hit that inning and only two more the rest of the game.
Pitt State came within two in the bottom of the sixth, as Rynard hit her 12th home run of the season with a runner on to make the score 5-3. The Gorillas got only three more runners on base the rest of the game, ending in the 5-3 loss.
Pitt State will play a non-conference doubleheader against Rogers State at 4 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8 at the PSU Softball Complex.
