Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 St. Louis, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College softball team was back in action when traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on Missouri S&T and Maryville (Mo.) University in a pair of nonconference matchups. The Cougars split the double header as they were defeated by the Miners in their first game of the day by a final score of 4-3 and then bounced back to defeat the Saints in their second game by a final score of 1-0 to improve to 5-2 on the season.

The Cougars came out in their first game against Missouri S&T and scored two runs in the top of the first to jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the game. However, the Miners responded quickly to Columbia's runs and answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at two. The score remained tied over the next three innings but in the bottom of the fifth Missouri S&T scored two runs and held a 4-2 lead late in the game. The Cougars did their best to get back into the game and were able to add a run in the top of the seventh but ultimately the Miners would close out the contest and hand Columbia College their second loss of the season. Paxton Welch was the starting pitcher for the Cougars in the game allowing eight hits and three earned runs in six innings of work. In addition to Welch, Theresa DeCosty went 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored to lead the Cougars offensively.

In their second game of the day, the Cougars found themselves in a pitchers dual against the Saints. The Cougars scored the only run of the game in the top of the second inning when Karli Leeper homered to deep left field giving Columbia College a 1-0 lead in the contest. The Saints did all they could to get back into the game but the Cougars played lock down defense and closed out Maryville for their fifth win of the season. Lauren McCroskie was the winning pitcher for Columbia as she improved to 3-0 on the season after allowing just three hits and no earned runs in the complete game shutout.

The Cougars are back in action on Friday, March 3^rd when they travel to Gulf Shores, Alabama, to take on 10^th ranked William Carey (Miss.) University and 14^th ranked Martin Methodist (Tenn.) University in the 2017 Gulf Coast Invitational. Columbia will take on William Carey at 9 a.m. followed by a 1 p.m. start against Martin Methodist.