MONTICELLO, Ark. - It was a hotly contested series between the Blossoms of Arkansas-Monticello and the Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers in Monticello, Ark. where each team came away with two wins and two losses over the weekend. Day two consisted of some fireworks on both sides as the Blossoms took game one in walk off form, while the Rangers shut UAM out in game two.
GAME 1
Through the first two innings in the first game of the day, both pitchers looked solid and were stingy against the opposing offenses, allowing zero runs apiece.
Finally however, the Rangers broke through for a run in the top of the third, where
Jada Overby led things off with a single to the left side and advanced to second on a SAC bunt laid down by
Peyton Garrett. The very next play came up
Brittany Corrales who singled up the middle, scoring Overby on the play and was eventually brought around, herself by
Madison McGraw to make the score 2-0.
Starting pitcher,
Madison Garza once again shut the door on Monticello in the bottom half of the inning as she recorded three clean innings. She eventually went another two innings where the hosts were able to get anything going.
Northwestern on the other hand, kept pouring in the runs, pushing the lead to five through five and a half innings.
The lead quickly diminished however as the offense promptly showed up for the home squad, knotting up the score at five before the Rangers were finally able to shut down the Blossom attack.
Neither team was able to produce any kind of offense or run support over the seventh inning as once again the two teams would head to extras.
The top of the eighth was a tough one for the Rangers where they were unable to get any baserunners aboard, and unfortunately fell in the contest after an error at third, scoring the go-ahead run for UAM.
GAME 2
The second of the twin bill was a good one as well, but in more of a pitchers duel fashion.
Karly Murray was once again stellar in the circle as she came away with her fifth win over the last two weekends, improving her overall record on the year to 6-6.
The Rangers and the Blossoms only accounted for 10 total hits, while six of them came off Ranger bats.
Madi Parrott had a fantastic game two at the plate where she was 3-for-3, but the two runs came off the bat of
Morgan Kirk who placed a timely single to left, scoring Garrett and
Katie Bell on the play.
Neither team scored a run until the fifth inning where it was started with a walk issued to
Audrey Estes and was followed by a single by Garrett. A SAC bunt by Corrales moved both Garrett and Bell to the next available base after which they were brought around by Kirk, giving the 2-0 lead to the visitors.
Murray allowed just one hit in the first inning and that would be the only Blossom baserunner until the bottom of the fifth inning, where they gained one more on another single.
Although UAM came up with a couple more hits in the final two innings, Murray quickly shut the offense down immediately following each base knock, closing the door for good in the seventh on a pair of flyouts, giving the Rangers a big, 2-0 victory.
UP NEXT
Northwestern will return home after two straight weeks of road series' where they will host Midwestern State (Texas) in a mid-week game on Tuesday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. The non-conference doubleheader will be followed up by a series with league-leading Southern Arkansas who is 25-3 overall with a daunting 14-2 record in GAC play.
