ST. LOUIS – The Maryville softball team saw
Cora Boyle tally a career day in the circle, tossing a two-hit complete game shutout to win game one of the home doubleheader against the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars. The Saints fell in game two of the doubleheader 4-1, behind a big seventh inning by UIS.
Boyle's game one gem was her first complete game of the season, and the fewest hits she's given up in a start of more than three innings. Offensively,
Addison Koth,
Jenna Kosnoff and
Mandi Lenon were the three RBI getters of game one, with Kosnoff tallying her 12th double of the season, a new single season high for the junior second baseman.
Game two saw Koth's 12th home run of the season be the only runs the Saints could muster. Maryville left seven runners on base, with the Saints walking seven times over the contest.
GAME 1 | Maryville 3, UIS 0
Boyle kicked it off quickly, using just six pitches to bet out of the first inning. The offense quickly gave her a lead to work with, as after a Kosnoff hit-by-pitch and a
Mandi Lenon bunt single, Koth crushed a ball off the second basemen to score the first run of the ballgame, which ended up being the winning run. Back-to-back doubles by
Payton Deakin and Kosnoff resulted in the second Saints run in as many innings.
Boyle stranded two on in the second and one in the third before, yet another Maryville run came across, this one in riskier fashion. With
Leah Perales at third, Lenon laid down a perfect bunt which Perales on a safety squeeze, scored on, using a swim move to avoid the tag at home.
With cushion, Boyle was aggressive from there, going three-up-three down in the fifth, sixth, and seventh to end the game.
GAME 2 | UIS 4, Maryville 1
A quiet first inning was quickly turned loud in the second. UIS, on a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases against Boyle with just one out. A 6-2 putout at home on a hard hit ball to Perales put the Saints just one out from getting out of the jam. That is where Head Coach
Chanin Billings turned towards freshman
Mia Maxel who on a 3-2 battle induced a flyball to left field to end the inning and strand the bases loaded.
Maxel's confidence continued to climb as she struck out two in the third, and another in the fourth, but UIS scratched across a run in the top of the fourth on a wild pitch. One-two-three frames in the fifth and the sixth before the Saints could tie it. A solo home run by Koth on a full count battle equalized.
UIS answered right back and more, using a single and two walks to push Maxel out of the game. UIS took advantage immediately, scoring three runs in the inning to take a 4-1 lead, one the Saints did not overcome in the bottom half of the inning.
UP NEXT
The Saints are right back at it tomorrow at the M.A.C. with a massive test as they welcome in the top team in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in UIndy for a doubleheader set to start at 1 p.m.
