MCC Softball wallops Trinidad State in Friday sweep

The McCook Community College softball team outscored Trinidad State Friday at home 23-1 in a pair of games at the Jaycees Sports Complex. The Lady Indians won the first game 9-0 and took the second game 14-1. Both wins were in five innings.

“It was a pretty flawless day for us,” said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall. “We came to play. We had much better energy and we were locked in at the plate.”

The Lady Indians got a pair of first-inning home runs from freshman Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) and sophomore Anna Elliott (Calgary, Alberta) and sophomore Sadie Kahl (Calgary, Alberta) backed up the offense with a three-hit shutout from the pitching circle.

McCook poured it on in Game 2, scoring 10 runs in the first inning which included a grand slam from sophomore Laila Gutierrez (Seminole, Texas), who hit another homer in the third inning and had six RBIs in the game. Sophomore pitcher Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) allowed one earned run on five hits, one walk and seven strikeouts.

“We had two more quality starts from our pitchers and our defense backed them up,” said Mendenhall.

Trinidad State falls to 9-9 in the Region IX standings and 18-22 on the year.

MCC leads Region IX with a 16-2 record, moves to 39-7 on the season and 17-1 at home.

The two teams will play another doubleheader Saturday at the Jaycees Sports Complex starting at 11 a.m.

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

 GAME 1 – McCook 9, Trinidad State 0 Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) led off the MCC first with a single and Payton Kinsley powered a one-out home run. After a double from sophomore Lexi Knapp (Berthoud, Colo.) Anna Elliott smacked a two-run home run to put MCC up 4-0.

Angela Banzet (sophomore, Surrey, British Columbia) singled to lead off the MCC second and scored on an RBI-single by sophomore Laila Gutierrez (Seminole, Texas) to put MCC up 5-0. Rocio Mascorro (sophomore, Brownsville, Texas) doubled to lead off the third and later came home on a passed ball and Gutierrez singled home Banzet with two outs to make it a 7-0 game.

The Lady Indians added two runs in the fourth on a leadoff single by Knapp, a Trinidad State error and a passed ball.

Kahl picked up the complete-game win in five innings, she allowed three hits, no walks and struck out four.

MCC had 13 hits led by three from Warren and two each by Gutierrez, Knapp and Mascorro.

GAME 2 – McCook 14, Trinidad State 1: After Trinidad State scored their only run of the afternoon in the first inning, MCC responded with 10 runs in the bottom of the inning sending 13 batters to the plate. Payton Kinsley had a two-run single, sophomores Ayana Goodwin (Broomfield, Colo.) and Angela Banzet had RBI-singles and Laila Gutierrez capped the scoring with a grand slam to put MCC ahead 10-1.

Goodwin added an RBI-single in the second to make it a 11-1 game and Gutierrez hit a two-run home run in the third inning to give the Lady Indians a 13-1 lead and Lexi Knapp singled in Kinsley for the final margin of victory.

Kaliyah St. Amand (Duncan, British Columbia) picked up the five-inning win in the pitching circle, allowing five hits, one run and one walk while striking out seven.

Gutierrez led MCC with two hits and six RBIs. Kinsley and Goodwin both had two hits and two RBIs.