The MCC softball team was at Indian Hills on April 28 for a pair of conference contests. With seeding for the conference tournament yet to be determined, the matchup had high stakes for both teams.
Game 1
The Warriors of Indian Hills jumped out to an early lead over the Tigers in game one and never gave the visiting team any life.
After holding the Tigers scoreless in the top of the first inning, the Warriors went to work at the plate. Brittani Lloyd worked a leadoff walk from pitcher, Saydee Terrell. The next batter, Brooke Snyder, tripled to right field to score Lloyd and put Indian Hills on the board. With Snyder on third, Macey Herrington homered to move the score to 3-0. The home team went on to add one more run in the first and led 4-0 after one inning.
MCC threatened in the second after their first two batters, Kylie Swan and Nell Skeath each reached base, but the Tigers couldn't score.
Then came a long half inning for the Tigers defensively. In the bottom of the second, the Warriors plated 13 runs as each Warrior batter scored at least once in the inning. In the bottom of the second, Indian Hills recorded eleven hits, including two home runs, four walks, and the Tigers committed three errors.
The Tigers were never able to get back into the game and fell by a score of 23-0 in five innings.
Game 2
Game two was a closer contest, but again it saw Indian Hills prevail in just five inning.
The Tigers got on the board first as Ashley Tennant hit a two-out single and was followed up by a Nicolette Dabbs double. With runners on second and third, Kylie Swan punched a single into left field to score Tennant before a Nell Skeath groundout ended the threat.
Leading 1-0, the road team was unable to hold the lead for long as the Warrior tied the game at 1-1 when Brittni Lloyd scored on a Macey Herrington single after Lloyd had earned a walk and stolen second. But the Tigers and pitcher, Ashley Tennant were able to avoid any additional damage and the game went to the second inning with the score tied.
A couple of baserunners went by the wayside in the top of the second inning as the Tigers hit into two fielder's choices and were unable to capitalize on a leadoff single by DJ Schmidt.
An error in the bottom of the second proved costly for the Tigers as after Jordon Hollon and Abigail Sweet singled to start the inning, the home team went on to score three runs on just four singles.
Trailing 4-1, it was MCC's turn to take advantage of an error. Ashley Tennant led the third inning off by striking out before Dibbs singled up the middle. The next batter, Kylie Swan, reached on an error by the pitcher that allowed Dabbs to reach second. After Nell Skeath grounded into a fielder's choice to erase Dabbs from the base paths, DJ Schmidt hit an RBI single to the left side that scored Swan. With Runners on first and second, AnnaMarie Armstrong struck out looking to keep the score 4-2, Indian Hills.
Indian Hills opened up the game in the third and fourth innings as they replied to the single Tiger run with a pair of their own in the third. After holding MCC scoreless in the fourth inning, the Warriors plated four runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by an Alexis Westercamp three-run dinger.
Now trailing 10-2, the Tigers needed to score in the top of the fifth to stay alive. The bottom two-thirds of the order took care of that for the visitors as the 4-9 batters each singled in the inning. Kylie Swan and Nell Skeath eventually scored for the Tigers, but some base running decisions ultimately cost the Tigers some opportunities to score more as all three outs in the top of the fifth came on the base paths as runners attempted to take extra bases.
With the score at 10-4, the Warriors needed two runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game early via the run rule. Brooke Snyder got the inning started with a single into center field. After Herrington lined back to the pitcher, Chloe Olson put the nail in the Tigers' coffin with a two-run shot over the center field wall for a walk-off homerun.
The Tigers and Warriors will next face off in the 10 AM game of the Region XI Tournament held at the MCC campus on Friday, May 3.
