Columbia, Mo. –The 15th ranked Columbia College softball team was back in action when they hosted the Harris-Stowe State University Hornets in an AMC doubleheader. The Cougars won the first game by a score of 17-0 and the second game by a final score of 15-6 to improve to 20-9 on the season and 13-1 in conference play.
In the first game, the Cougars bats were rolling as they took a 15-0 lead after the first two innings. The Hornets tried to get themselves back in the game, but could not get anything going offensively as Columbia held them scoreless. The Cougars scored 17 runs on 16 hits to solidify a 17-0 win in game one.
Lexi Dickerson was the winning pitcher as she allowed zero hits, zero earned runs, and struck out one batter in her 2.0 innings of play. Emerson Yakle came in to relieve Dickerson, as she also allowed zero hits and zero earned runs, while striking out four batters in 3.0 innings of work. Offensively, Rachel Sullivan went 3-3 with two runs scored and one RBI, Julianna Waldner was 2-4 with two runs scored and one RBI, Alexandra Linck went 2-3 including a homerun, and had two runs scored and three RBI's, Allyson Metz was 2-4 with two runs scored and one RBI, Karli Leeper and Natalie Dummitt each went 2-4 with two runs scored and three RBI's, Olivia Denslow was 1-2 with two runs scored and three RBI's, and Allison Keen went 2-3 with two runs scored and two RBI's.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Cougars took a quick 2-0 lead after one. In the top of the third the Hornets rattled off six runs, including a grand slam, to take a 6-2 lead midway through the third. Columbia came storming right back as they knocked in five runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead 7-6. The Cougars would shut out the Hornets the rest of the game while they added eight more runs to win by a score of 15-6.
Reagen Radke was the starting pitcher as she allowed two hits and struck out one batter in her 2.1 innings of work. Emerson Yakle came in allowing one hit and four earned runs, along with one strike out in her 0.1 innings on the mound. Kaitlyn Nottelmann was the winning pitcher as she gave up just two hits, two runs, and had four strike outs in 2.1 innings of play. Offensively, Sullivan went 2-4 with one run scored and three RBI's, Linck was 2-4 with one run scored, Metz went 2-3 with four runs scored, Leeper was 2-4 with one run scored and three RBI's, Dummitt went 1-3 with two runs scored and two RBI's, Denslow went 2-2 with one run scored and two RBI's, and Libby Marko went 3-3 with one run scored and three RBI's.
The Cougars are back in action Saturday, April 14th when they travel to Hannibal, Missouri to take on the Hannibal-LaGrange University Trojans in an AMC doubleheader. The first game of the doubleheader is set to start at 12:00 p.m. with the second game to follow.
