St. Louis – #Nikki
Taylor had a big offensive performance as the Maryville softball team earned a split against Great Lakes Valley Conference rival Drury University Friday afternoon at Weber Field. The Saints pounded out nine hits en route to an 11-2 victory in the first game of the series before falling in the night cap, 2-1.
After the two teams were held scoreless though the first two innings, the Saints cracked the scoreboard in the home half of the third as
Bri Livingston opened the frame with a single and moved to second as
Sydney Halleen reached base on an error to put a pair of runners on board with no outs. The runners moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt and scored as
Courtney Ferguson drilled a double to left center to give the Saints a 2-0 lead. The Panthers answered with a run of their own in the top of the fifth inning, but the Saints blew the game wide open with a six run outburst in the home half of the fifth. After Maryville took advantage of a pair of Panther errors that lead to three runs and a 5-1 lead with runners at first and second, Taylor smashed her eighth home run of the year to straight away center field to stake the Saints to an 8-1 advantage. Drury again scored a run in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 8-2, but Taylor continued to swing a hot bat as she drilled a single to left field to drive in two runs in the sixth to give the Saints an 11-2 victory.
Sheridon Sprague earned her third win of the year by going five innings and giving up a run on four hits with three strikeouts. Taylor was the hero at the plate with two hits and five runs batted in while Livingston was 3-for-3 with two runs scored.
The Panthers opened the night cap by scoring a run in the top of the first to grab an early lead, but Maryville battled back in the third as Halleen opened the inning by reaching first on catcher's interference and moved to second on a
Kelsey Martin free pass with two out. Taylor once again delivered as she smashed a single into left field to score Halleen and tie the contest at 1-1. Drury regained the lead in the top of the fourth with a run to take a 2-1 advantage and was able to hold on as Maryville had a pair of runners on in both the sixth and seventh innings, but could not push any base runners across.
Alyssa Callans fell to 4-5 on the year by going six innings and scattering four hits and giving up two runs. Martin paced the Saints by going 1-for-1 and drawing two walks as Maryville fell to 18-22 on the year and 8-12 in conference play.
Maryville returns to the diamond tomorrow at noon as Missouri S&T invades Weber Field for a GLVC doubleheader.
