BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Junior
Emily King lifted a Jennies squad that had been fighting to score runs. Trailing by one with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, King came through with a home run to tie Illinois-Springfield and send the game to extra innings. The Jens scored two in the bottom of the eighth to propel themselves to a 3-2 win and split on day one of the Arkansas-Monticello Eight State Classic. UCM now stands at 3-5 to start the season.
Game Two: Central Missouri 3, Illinois-Springfield 2 - 8 inningsEmily Robinson pitched her best game in a Jennies uniform to earn the first win of her career. She threw all eight innings allowing two unearned runs on three hits while striking out nine. Five of Robinson's first six outs were recorded via the punch out.
The Prairie Stars squeezed out a run in third though to take a 1-0 lead. With two outs and nobody on, a Jennies error was the start of three consecutive batters to reach base. Alex McClaughry drove home Rachel Goff with a single for the games first run.
That is how the score remained until King struck in the seventh. Central Missouri had base runners in three of the six previous innings but couldn't find the equalizer.
Alex Leonhart started the seventh with a single, but when pinch runner
Makayla Schoonover was thrown out attempting to steal, it left the Jennies down to their final batter. That's when King stepped up with her first hit of the season, launching one over the fence to tie the game and send the teams to extra innings.
With international tiebreaker rules placing a runner on second base to start the inning, the Prairie Stars went right back on top scoring on a passed ball.
Needing a run to tie, the Jennies utilized their speed to generate offense.
Ali Jo Rogers led off the inning with a sacrifice bunt, but a wild throw allowed Giacone to score and moved Rogers to second. Rogers then stole third and scored the game-winner, racing home on a grounder off the bat of
Alexis Koop.
The Jennies collected six hits, two from
Lauren Mabe and Leonhart each. Koop and King picked up RBI while Rogers is now up to 11 stolen bases through eight games.
Game One: Harding 8, Central Missouri 2 The Jennies fell behind early in their first game of the afternoon, allowing a pair of first inning runs to the Bisons on a two-out error.
The score remained that way through three innings. Central Missouri threatened in the first after Rogers singled and stole second and third, putting a runner at third with nobody out. The Jennies failed to score though and didn't have another base runner until the fourth.
In the top half of the fourth, the Bisons scored six unearned runs to take an 8-0 lead. Harding capped the six-run frame with a two-out grand slam from Kimmy Hendricks.
After leaving two runners on in the fourth, UCM finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning. With one out, Koop singled through the right side to score
Katie Giacone and
Brittany Kendall, her first two RBI as a Jennie. That's all the Jennies could get across, as Harding held on for the 8-2 win.
Koop reached base twice for the Jennies with a single and a walk. Rogers went 1-for-4 with a single and two stolen bases, to become the first Jennie to ever reach 100 career stolen bases.
Allison Tonyan started for Central Missouri and struggled with her control in 3.1 innings. Tonyan allowed just one hit, but walked six and gave up six runs, four earned.
Jordan Johnson came on in relief to throw 3.2 innings, giving up two runs on one hit with one walk and one strikeout.
The Jennies play another two tomorrow afternoon in Bentonville. First up is a rematch with Southeastern Oklahoma State who UCM saw last week. That has an 11 a.m. first pitch. UCM will then face host school Arkansas-Monticello at 1 p.m.
