By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Fort Hays State Softball moved to 4-0 to open the 2024 season after another pair of masterful pitching performances from Morgan Schmidtand Savanah Egger on Saturday (Feb. 10). The Tigers won both of their games by shutout, defeating Southwestern Oklahoma State 4-0 and Cameron 1-0. The Sunday portion of the weekend’s play was canceled due to inclement weather entering the area.
The Tigers kept their trend of scoring early and making it stick with their pitching and defense. FHSU scored in the first inning of both contests on Saturday, continuing a trend it started on Friday in the wins over Midwestern State and Northwestern Oklahoma State.
Fort Hays State 4, Southwestern Oklahoma 0
The Tigers methodically marched their way to a 4-0 win over the Bulldogs of Southwestern Oklahoma State behind a complete-game shutout from Morgan Schmidt. Schmidt navigated around five hits and four walks to keep the Bulldogs scoreless, while striking out five.
FHSU rallied for its first run of the game in the first inning, doing all of its damage with two outs. Alondra Dominguez and Madison Pierce both singled before Loren Beggs walked to load the bases. Carly Stuke was then hit by a pitch to plate the game’s first tally.
Pierce and Beggs started a rally for the Tigers in the third with back-to-back singles. A Stuke walk loaded the bases and then a Regan Curry RBI single made it 2-0.
After Schmidt escaped a two-out bases-loaded situation in the top of the fifth, the Tiger offense gave her more support in the sixth when back to back hits by Peyton Shepard and Sarah Tiffany made it 3-0. Moments later, Pierce knocked in Tiffany with a hit to make the eventual final margin of 4-0.
Schmidt allowed only one hit through the first four innings. She closed out the game with a flyout in another bases-loaded two-out situation in the seventh to preserve her shutout.
The Tiger offense finished with 10 hits in the contest, led by Pierce with three and Tiffany and Beggs with two each. Beggs got on base four times in the game, adding a pair of walks to her 2-for-2 effort at the plate.
Fort Hays State 1, Cameron 0
Game two of the day for the Tigers was an old-fashioned pitching duel between Savanah Egger and Tinley Schmidgall. The Tigers once again jumped ahead 1-0 in the first inning, and that’s all they would need for Egger as she notched her first shutout of the season.
Egger retired the first four batters of the game, surrendered a hit with one out in the second, then surrendered her final hit with two outs in the third. She went on to hold the Aggies hitless over the final four innings and close the book on a perfect weekend for the Tigers.
An error by the Aggies in the first inning set up the game’s only run as Loren Beggs poked a ground-rule double scoring Sarah Tiffany, who walked earlier in the inning. The Tigers collected just four hits in the game, with two by Aubrey Martinez. Regan Curry and Beggs with her run-scoring double were the other two.
Egger recorded her second-straight 8-strikeout game of the weekend, while walking only two in her two-hit shutout. Schmidgall for Cameron took a tough-luck loss with no earned runs allowed. She struck out one and walked one in her complete-game effort for the Aggies.
Fort Hays State returns to action next week in Bethany and Edmond in the Oklahoma City area for six games against region opponents all from the Great American Conference. The Tigers play two games each day Thursday through Saturday (Feb. 15-17).
Friday
Fort Hays State Softball started the 2024 season 2-0 with a pair of wins on Friday (Feb. 9). The Tigers knocked off Midwestern State 5-4 in the first contest of the day and then notched a 9-1 run-rule win in five innings over Northwestern Oklahoma State. The Tigers had a pair of strong pitching performances from Savanah Egger and Morgan Schmidt, yielding just one earned run on the day. It marked Fort Hays State’s first 2-0 start to a season since 2013.
Fort Hays State 5, Midwestern State 4
Savanah Egger gave the Tigers a strong outing in the pitching circle with a complete-game win to open the season. She had a no-hitter going through the first 3.2 innings until an error led to a double that produced Midwestern State’s first hit and run of the game.
The Tigers grabbed the lead early and never surrendered it. Sarah Tiffany drew a walk in the first inning and eventually came in to score on a Loren Beggs RBI single, putting the Tigers up 1-0 after a half inning.
FHSU extended its lead to 4-0 in the third inning when Alondra Dominguez, Beggs, and Madison Pierce strung together three-straight hits. Pierce’s single drove in Dominguez. Carly Stuke followed with a sacrifice fly RBI to score Beggs and then Lilliana Ramirez-Johnsondoubled home Pierce.
After MSU picked up its first run in the fourth, the Tigers got it back in the sixth to get their cushion out to four again. Peyton Shepard drew a walk, moved up to third after a couple wild pitches, and Tiffany drove her in with a sacrifice fly RBI.
Egger retired the Mustangs in order in the fifth, but then had to navigate trouble in the sixth. An error to start the inning opened the door for an MSU rally and a double to follow put runners at second and third. After recording one out, MSU cut the Tiger lead down to two with an RBI single. With two outs, another RBI single tightened the Tiger advantage to just one at 5-4. The early error in the inning resulted in two of the three runs being unearned.
Egger bounced back to nail the door shut in the seventh, retiring the Mustangs in order with a pair of groundouts and a strikeout. She finished the game with eight strikeouts overall and punched out the side in the second inning for nearly half of her total. Only one of her four runs allowed in the game were earned.
Dominguez finished with a perfect 4-for-4 game at the plate, all on singles. Shepard, Beggs, and Pierce all had two hits. One of Pierce’s hits was a double. Stuke’s lone hit of the game was a triple.
Fort Hays State 9, Northwestern Oklahoma State 1 (5 inn.)
Just like in game one, the Tigers took the lead in the first inning and never gave it up. They put the hammer down with a six-run fourth inning and then added a run in the fifth to bring the run rule into play. Also, just like game one, Morgan Schmidt held a no-hitter through 3.2 innings before Northwestern Oklahoma State picked up its lone hit of the game.
Peyton Shepard got the Tiger offense triggered with a leadoff walk to open the game. Sarah Tiffany then singled and Shepard came in to score on an Alondra Dominguez RBI single. Madison Pierce drove in Tiffany with a sacrifice fly to put the Tigers up 2-0 through a half inning.
NWOSU scored its only run of the game on a Tiger error in the second inning. After a pair of walks, a Tiger miscue allowed a runner to come in to score to cut the lead to 2-1. But Schmidt got out of the inning without allowing a hit.
The Tigers quickly put the game out of reach in the fourth all on a two-out rally. Regan Curry had doubled with one out, but Tiffany came up clutch with a two-out RBI single to drive her in following a Shepard walk. The floodgates opened after that as Dominguez continued her blazing hot opening day at the plate with an RBI ground-rule double. NWOSU changed pitchers, but that did not stop the Tigers as Pierce delivered a two-RBI single and then Loren Beggs capped the offensive avalanche with a two-run homer. FHSU led 8-1 through three and a half innings. Lexi Mohr brought the run-rule into play with a sacrifice fly RBI in the top of the fifth following a Lilliana Ramirez-Johnson double to open the inning.
Schmidt surrendered her only hit of the contest with two outs in the fourth, but she went on to retire the final four hitters she faced in the game for the complete-game win. Schmidt finished with seven strikeouts in her five innings of work.
Tiffany led the Tigers with three hits in the game, while Dominguez and Beggs each had two. Shepard drew three walks in the game and crossed the plate twice, while Tiffany also scored twice.