Lady Indians top No. 15 Crowder, Missouri State-West Plains

BRANSON, Mo. – In an early-season battle between a pair of top 15 ranked softball teams, No. 13 McCook Community College broke up a 1-1 tie against No. 15 Crowder College with an eight-run outburst to win 9-1 Friday in the opening game of the Branson Turf’s Up Classic. The Lady Indians also beat Missouri State University-West Plains in five innings 14-6.

“It was a good day with two quality wins,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendehnall. “We were playing very tense in Game 1 but had a big inning to seal the game.” 

Sophomore starting pitcher Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) held Crowder to three hits in the first game and struck out 13. Sophomore Kashlin Beck (Claflin, Kan.) helped ignite MCC’s first scoring rally in the fifth inning and again in the seventh and homered to cap off the scoring. Sophomore Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) delivered a tie-breaking double to put MCC up for good in the seventh inning.

In the second game MCC scored eight runs in the fifth inning to break a 6-6 tie.

“It took us a little while to get going offensively in both games,” said Mendenhall.  

Freshman Lyndsay Keogh (freshman, Surrey, British Columbia) had three extra-base hits including a grand slam and drove in five runs in Game 2 while Beck had a pair of doubles as part of her three-hit game. Freshman Hannah Schneider (Alliance, Neb.) picked up the win in the pitching circle in relief of Warren, who pitched the first four innings.

Friday’s win over Crowder was a satisfying win for some of the sophomores who lost to Crowder 4-2 last May in the opening game of the Division 1 College World Series. The Roughriders finished their year at 54-11 (5-2 in the CWS). MCC was 51-11 last year and 3-2 in the CWS. Crowder goes to 4-2 to start this season.

MCC improves to 5-1 on the season and on Saturday the Lady Indians will continue in the Classic with a 9:15 a.m. first pitch against Northern Oklahoma College-Enid (7-5) followed by an 11:15 a.m. game against Southwestern Community College (Creston, Iowa). NOC-Enid won twice Friday, taking down East Central College 13-5 and winning 8-0 over State Fair Community College. SWCC (4-2) lost a 5-0 game against Eastern Oklahoma State Friday but came back to win 6-1 over State Fair Community College.

GAME 1 – McCook CC 9, Crowder College 1: After both pitchers kept the offense off the scoreboard for three innings, Crowder got to MCC starter Kaliyah St. Amand in the fourth inning with a leadoff home run from Layla Paisley for a 1-0 lead.

MCC (the visiting team on the scoreboard) responded in the fifth inning. After freshman Brooklyn Gillen (McCook) walked to lead off the inning, sophomore Kashlin Beck reached on a Roughrider error, the Lady Indians tied the game on a line-drive single to centerfield by freshman Lacyn Keller (McCook). With two on and no outs, the top of the MCC batting order was unable to add on any more runs.

After a scoreless sixth inning, the bottom of the lineup kick-started the offense in the seventh inning when Beck, again, reached on an error and Keller singled. This time the top of the order delivered as sophomore Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) broke the tie with an RBI-doubled, freshman Josie Wright (Calgary, Alberta) singled home Keller and sophomore Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) singled in Warren to put MCC up 4-1. St. Amand walked to load the bases and chase the Crowder starting pitcher from the game. Lyndsay Keogh walked to put MCC up 5-1 and sophomore Audrey Reeves (Sterling, Colo.) drove home a run with a sacrifice fly. Gillen drove in MCC’s seventh run on an RBI-groundout and Beck capped the scoring with a two-run home run.

St. Amand closed out the game by retiring the Roughriders in order in the seventh. She limited Crowder to two singles and the solo home run. She didn’t walk a hitter and struck out 13 in the complete-game win to go 3-0 on the season.

Beck reached base three times in the game and led MCC with two RBIs. Warren had the only two-hit game for MCC.

GAME 2 – McCook CC 14, Mo. State-West Plains 6 (5 innings): Josie Wright tripled to lead off the bottom of the first and scored on an errant throw. Lyndsay Keogh tripled to lead off a four-run third inning. Payton Kinsley doubled in Keogh. Hallie Schneider (freshman, Alliance, Neb.) singled home Kinsley and the Lady Indians got back-to-back two out doubles by Lacyn Keller and sophomore transfer Marleigh Mitchell (Mission, British Columbia) to put MCC up 5-0.

The Grizzlies responded with back-to-back singles to lead off the fourth off Paige Warren and got back in the game with a three-run home run and tied the game with a pair of unearned runs to make it a 5-5 game.

Warren singled in the bottom of the inning, stole second and scored on Keogh’s double to reclaim the lead 6-5.

Hannah Schneider relieved Warren in the fifth inning. Warren pitched four innings, allowed seven hits, three earned runs, one walk and she struck out five. Schneider pitched one inning and allowed one run on two hits and she struck out one.

With the scored tied at 6-6, MCC sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning and scored eight runs on singles by Beck, Mitchell, Warren and Brooklyn Gillen, a grand slam by Keogh and a double by Kinsley then in the second time through the lineup, a second single by Mitchell as well as a double by Beck.

MCC outhit MSU-WP 17-9 with three-hit games by Beck, Keough and Mitchell and two-hit games by Warren and Kinsley. MCC had 10 extra-base hits. Beck and Kinsley both doubled twice and Keogh had a double, triple and home run.

This was the first game of the season for the Grizzlies

Up-to-date information about MCC  softball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com