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| Rachel Wilkinson |
After going scoreless for 11-plus innings on Thursday, the Lady Miner softball team staged a pair of two-out rallies to gain a split with Truman State in a non-conference doubleheader at the UMR Softball Field.
Rachel Wilkinson's single drove in Kandi Wieberg with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh of game two to give UMR a 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs after Truman won game one by a 2-0 count.
UMR was shut out in the opener by Ashley McDougal and by Katie Jeannin for the first four innings of the nightcap before finally getting on the scoreboard. It wasn't until Truman had taken a 2-0 lead in the top half of the fifth with a pair of unearned runs for the UMR bats to come to life.
A two-out error by shortstop Kelsey Musselman kept the Truman fifth alive and the Bulldogs took advantage when Jessie Shelman laced a double with the bases loaded to score a pair.
But after Jeannin retired the first two hitters in the bottom half, Krista Porterfield lined a ball off her leg and reached base. Wieberg followed with a double to left center to score Porterfield, then Wieberg scored moments later when Ashley Winter blooped a single to right center to tie the score.
UMR had a chance to get the lead in the sixth when Emily Tucker doubled with one out, but she was stranded on second.
After McDougal entered the game and got the first two hitters out in the seventh, Wieberg got her fourth hit of the game. Winter, who had two hits off McDougal in the opener, was walked on four pitches and Musselman also drew a walk to load the bases.
Wilkinson got behind in the count, but then hit a shot over the head of Truman rightfielder Christen Belcher to win the game.
Ashley Wallingford got the win for the Lady Miners as she allowed just five hits and struck out three in a complete game effort, improving her record to 5-1 on the season.
The Bulldogs scored single runs off Jen O'Hara in the first and third innings of game one, getting a solo home run from Hallie Blackney in the first and a run-scoring double from Shelman in the third.
UMR stranded seven runners in the opener and missed a golden scoring chance in the first with runners on second and third and nobody out. It also left two runners on base in the fifth as it was shut out for the first time this season.
The Lady Miners (14-7) will face Missouri-St. Louis Saturday in a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader that will start at noon.
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