Columbia, Mo. – This afternoon the third ranked Columbia College softball team was back in action when they took on Stephens (Mo.) College in an AMC doubleheader. The Cougars were able to sweep the Stars winning the first game by a final score of 6-0 and the second game by a final score of 9-1. With the sweep, Columbia College improves to 21-2 on the season and 10-0 in conference play while extending their winning streak to 17 straight games.
The Cougars came out in the first game and were able to get on the board early. They started the game by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning including a solo homerun from the reigning NAIA and AMC Softball Player of the Week,
Allyson Metz, to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Columbia added two more runs in the second and two runs in the fifth to solidify their 20th win of the season and remain unbeaten in conference play.
Paxton Welch was the starting pitcher for the Cougars allowing just two hits in the complete game shutout for her ninth win of the season. Offensively, Columbia was led by
Molly Carter who went 1-3 with three RBI's and
Allyson Metz who went 2-4 with two runs scored.
In their second game of the day, the Cougars were able to mimic what they did in the first inning of the first game and put two early runs on the board to take a quick 2-0 lead in the ballgame. The Stars battled back over the next few innings and were able to cut Columbia's lead in half in the top of the third but that was as close as they would get as the Cougars rallied for seven runs in the bottom of the fourth to complete to two game sweep over the Stars.
Lauren McCroskie notched her 11
th win of the season in this one as the starting pitcher allowed just three hits and one earned run in five innings of work. In addition to McCroskie, the Cougars were led by
Natalie Dummitt who went 2-3 with two RBI's and
Molly Carter who went 3-3 with three RBI's.
Columbia College is back in action on Monday, March 27
th when they travel to Babson Park, Florida, to take on Webber (Fla.) University in a nonconference doubleheader. The first game is set to start at 1 p.m. with the second game to follow.
