Fayette, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College softball team took the field to resume play in the 2018 NAIA National Championship Opening Round-Fayette Bracket. The Cougars game was put on hold yesterday due to a rain delay where Columbia was trailing 10-9 against the Central Methodist University Eagles. They picked up today where they left off in the top of the seventh inning with two outs and runners on 1st and 3rd. After the delay, the Cougars were able to rally back today and win the game by a score of 14-12. The Cougars improve to 31-14 on the year.
The Cougars took the early lead as they led 4-1 after two innings. In the top of the third, Keen hit a three run homerun to put the Cougars up 7-1. Carter added a homer in the fourth to make the score 8-1. The Eagles, however, scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth and went on a run in the fifth to score seven more runs taking the lead 10-8 over the Cougars. Carter homered again in the sixth to cut the lead to 10-9 Eagles. In the top of the seventh inning, Columbia had runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs and Metz up to bat when the game was put into a rain delay. The game resumed play today, May 15th at noon where the Cougars came ready to battle. With two outs, Metz was able to single to short allowing Carter to score and tie the game at 10. Columbia was not finished as Denslow singled to shallow right-center scoring Linck to take the lead 11-10. Columbia was locked in as the bases were loaded and Keen doubled to deep right-center clearing the bases and giving the Cougars a 14-10 advantage. In the bottom of the inning, Columbia was able to hold the Eagles to just two runs to secure a 14-12 victory to advance to the winner's bracket.
Lexi Dickerson was the winning pitcher as she allowed just two hits, two earned runs, and one unearned run, while striking out four batters in 3.0 innings of work. Kaitlyn Nottelmann, Reagen Radke, and Molly Carter all came in to combine for allowing seven hits, nine earned runs, and struck out five batters. Offensively, Carter went 3-4 with three runs scored and four RBI's, Alexandra Linck went 2-5 with one run scored, Allyson Metz was 1-5 with two runs scored and one RBI, Olivia Denslow went 1-3 with one run scored and one RBI, Libby Marko went 1-2 with three runs scored, Allison Keen went 2-5 with one run scored and six RBI's, and Julianna Waldner went 2-4 with one run scored and one RBI.
The Cougars will play in the winners bracket tonight at 5:00 p.m. at Cox Softball Complex in Fayette, Missouri. They will play the winner of the Hope International vs. Dickinson State game.
