ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Fort Hays State split a pair of games to round out the Kelly Laas Memorial Tournament in St. Cloud, Minn., on Saturday (Feb. 20). The Tigers had just one hit in a 7-1 loss against Minnesota State-Mankato, but responded with a 3-2 victory over the home team St. Cloud State in game two.
Minnesota State-Mankato 7, Fort Hays State 1
Coley Ries had the Tigers’ number as she sat down all but one of the 19 FHSU batters she faced in 6.0 innings and retired 12 straight to start the game. Fort Hays State’s lone hit came off the bat of Samantha Villarreal, when she hit her first homerun of the season to lead off the fifth inning.
Carrie Clarke took the loss for the Tigers throwing all seven innings, giving up seven runs (six earned), with two K’s and two walks.
With the win Ries record on the season now sits at 3-3, and the Mavericks move to 4-4.
Fort Hays State 3, St. Cloud State 2
Game two was a pitcher’s duel throughout with the only run over the first four innings coming in the form of a home run from St. Cloud State’s Morgan Emmans in the bottom of the second.
The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Huskies, until the Tiger bats came alive in the top of the fifth. Kiley Strand broke up a no-hit bid by doubling down the left field line, then Chermayne Yago ended the shutout with an RBI triple to right center. She later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Paxton Duran to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
Fort Hays State got a much needed insurance run in the top half of the sixth. Claudia Vazquez roped a one-out double and scored on a Samantha Villarreal RBI base hit putting the Tigers up 3-1.
The Huskies cut the Tiger lead back to one run in the bottom of the sixth when Jaiden Lund hit a one out triple and came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Alyssa Coletto. But Paxton Duran held off SCSU in the seventh as she sat down the side in order to record her second win of the year. Duran went the distance for the Tigers throwing all seven innings, giving up two earned runs, with 11 strikeouts, and one walk.
The Tigers are now 3-6 on the year and look to improve on it Monday (Feb. 29) when they take on Newman at 3 pm for their home opener in Hays, Kan.