Lions live to see another day after walk-off win over Ichabods
May 5—After a 4-1 loss to third-seeded Rogers State earlier in the day, the second-seeded Missouri Southern Lions softball team faced a win-or-go-home scenario with the fifth-seeded Washburn Ichabods on Friday at the MIAA tournament in Topeka.
The Lions will stay in Topeka.
Southern (38-12) regrouped and claimed a 3-2 win over the Ichabods (37-16) in their elimination game Friday night and will face the sixth-seeded Missouri Western Griffons Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The Griffons kept their tourney hopes alive with a 9-0 win over fourth-seeded Central Missouri earlier in the day.
Neither MSSU or Washburn could get a run across in the first inning, but Southern's Katie Gray hit a two-out solo home run to center field to put the Lions up 1-0 in the bottom of the second.
The score remained unchanged until the top of the fifth when Washburn's Kimi Patterson hit a one-out home run over the left center field fence. It was just Patterson's second homer this season. After giving up a single to Autymn Schreiner, Lacy was replaced in the circle by Avery Tallman.
Tallman struck out Marrit Mead before giving up a left field single to Ellington Hogle. The inning ended on an Allison Hemsath foul out to left field.
The Lions had managed just one hit until Emily Perry hit a two-out solo homer over the left field fence to give the Lions a 2-1 lead. Abby DeSanto followed with a single to center field before Adrianna Young ended the inning with a bunt out to third base.
The Lions held Washburn scoreless in the top of the sixth inning, but failed to put a run across in their half of the frame.
Schreiner hit a one-out double to right center for Washburn in the top of the seventh. Mead grounded out to first base, but was able to advance pinch runner Gracie Gallagher to third base as the tying run with one out left in the final inning. Hogle doubled to right center to score Gallagher and tie the game at 2-2 before Jaycee Ginter popped out to short.
In the bottom of the inning, Kara Amos took the second pitch she saw over the right field fence for the walk-off homer, giving the Lions new life in the 3-2 win.
Tallman (17-2) logged the win, giving up four hits, walking none and striking out two in two and two-thirds innings of work. The Lions were outhit 9-4 in the game, but three of those four hits were homers.
In their first game of the day against RSU, the Lions were outhit and gave up a run in both the second and third innings to fall 2-0.
Southern tightened the game to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth off a Kara Amos RBI that plated Leighton Withers, but after two more scoreless innings, RSU added two runs in the top of the seventh to claim the 4-1 win and advance to face top-seeded Central Oklahoma on Saturday.
Amos (2-4) was saddled with the loss, while the Hillcats' Jade Sanders improved to 17-5 with the win. Withers went 2-3 with a triple for the Lions.
