CLAREMORE, Okla. – The Rogers State softball team swept Newman to move into first place in the Heartland Conference standings with only three games left in the league this weekend. The Hillcats won 6-0 and 8-1 over the Jets on Tuesday (April 24) at the Diamond Sports Complex to up their conference record to 16-9 and tie St. Mary's for the league lead.
The Hillcats (35-15, 16-9 Heartland) totaled five home runs in the twinbill with freshman
Merissa Smith totaling three homers today. RSU tallied nine of their 14 runs on home runs.
RSU 6, NU 0
Smith plated five of the six runs in game one, one RBI shy of the school record. She opened the game with back-to-back home runs in the first and second innings. Leading off the game, Smith hit a solo shot off the top of the scoreboard in right field for an early 1-0 RSU lead.
After
Sierra Skaggs added another solo home run to right for a 2-0 edge in the second inning, Smith drove in three runs with her second homer to right for a 5-0 score.
The freshman shortstop wasn't down as she hit an RBI single to center in the fourth for a 6-0 margin as
Katy Taylor scored from second base.
For game one, Smith was 3-for-4 with five RBI and two runs scored. Skaggs was 2-for-3 with one RBI.
Senior
Alex Brake was dominant in the circle, allowing only three hits in 7.0 innings with six strikeouts. She retired 12 straight batters between the first and fifth inning and only faced one more batter than the minimum at 22 in the seven-inning game. The senior moved to 14-5 on the season.
RSU 8, NU 1
After an early 1-0 deficit, the Cats poured on eight runs in four innings to cruise to the 8-1 game two victory.
The Jets hit an RBI single in the first inning for their only run of the doubleheader, but RSU came back to take the lead in the third with two runs. Skaggs drove in one run with a single to score
Tailee Reding to tie the game at 1-1.
Rylee DeLozier gave RSU the 2-1 edge with a single to left to plate
Danelle Day.
Smith added her third home run of the day in the fourth inning with a solo shot to right center to make it 3-1 in favor of the Cats.
In the fifth inning, RSU tallied two runs on a single to center from Taylor to score pinch runners
Kenzi Ziem and
AJ Waggnor for a 5-1 mark.
The final run came on a Day home run to right center that clipped the top of the wall and rolled over the top for a solo homer, her team-leading 17th of the season.
Andrea Morales earned the win in the nightcap, going the full 7.0 innings with only four hits and one run allowed. The El Paso, Texas native came into today's game with a streak of nearly 20 innings of shutout softball, but she gave up the run with two outs in the first to snap the streak at 20.1 innings. The freshman moved to 12-6 in the circle this season.
The Hillcats look to clinch the Heartland Conference championship this weekend with a three-game series at Oklahoma Christian starting on Friday with a doubleheader. The twinbill is scheduled for a 5 p.m. start in Oklahoma City, Okla. The finale of the three-game series is Saturday at 1 p.m. Live stats and video streaming will be available for all three games.
