By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
BETHANY, Okla. – Fort Hays State split its first two games of the Raising Cane’s Softball Festival in Oklahoma on Thursday (Feb. 15). The Tigers fell to Oklahoma Baptist 5-2 in their first game of the day, but bounced back for a 2-0 win over Southern Nazarene behind Savanah Egger’s second shutout performance of the season. FHSU moved to 5-1 overall on the season.
Oklahoma Baptist 5, Fort Hays State 2
For the first time this season Fort Hays State trailed in a game and could not muster a comeback rally late, taking its first loss of the season. The Tigers allowed nine walks in the contest, but only two turned into runs for the Bison.
In the second inning, a pair of back-to-back walks preceded a two-RBI Cassidy Morrow double down the right field line to put OBU up 2-0. After FHSU cut the lead in half in the third inning, OBU moved back in front by two with a triple and a sacrifice fly. The Tigers got within a run again in the fifth, but the Bison extended their lead to three in the bottom half of the inning when Ally Ryan connected for a two-run homer. That capped the scoring in the game.
A pair of fielding errors by the Bison in the third led to the first FHSU run. Alondra Dominguez made the Bison pay for their mistakes with an RBI single to the left side. In the fifth, a two-out single by Peyton Shepard set up an RBI double by Sarah Tiffany.
Shepard went 3-for-4 in the contest, while FHSU’s three other hits were spread among three players, which included the RBI hits by Dominguez and Tiffany.
Morgan Schmidt took her first loss of the season, allowing four runs in 1.2 innings of work. She struck out one. Bailey Carlson threw 2.2 innings of relief and allowed one run, while Emma Montoya threw 1.2 innings. Both Carlson and Montoya struck out three batters each. Maggie Place threw a complete game for OBU, picking up her first win of the season with five strikeouts.
Fort Hays State 2, Southern Nazarene 0
Savanah Egger navigated around run-scoring opportunities for SNU in three of seven innings to pick up her second shutout of the season. The Crimson Storm had runners in scoring position in the first, second, and fifth innings, but Egger was able to shut the door on the home team to move to 3-0 on the season. Just like the week before in her shutout against Cameron, she retired the final eight batters of the game she faced to nail down the win.
The Tigers generated their first run of the game in the second on a sacrifice fly RBI by Lilliana Ramirez-Johnson. The Tigers loaded the bases in front of her with a Regan Curry single, Carly Stuke walk, and Aubrey Martinez single. FHSU gave Egger an insurance run in the seventh when Stuke walked, Adysen Burghart put down a sacrifice bunt, and then Ramirez-Johnson struck again with an RBI single to score Stuke.
Egger scattered just three hits and walked two, while striking out a pair of SNU batters. Olivia Hernandez threw the first 6.0 innings and took the loss for the Crimson Storm and allowed one run on three hits with four walks. Katelyn Woodard threw the final inning for SNU and also gave up a run on a hit and a walk.
Fort Hays State returns to action on Friday, playing their first contest of the day against Southern Arkansas at 10 a.m. in Bethany before traveling north to Edmond to play East Central at 3:30 p.m.