CSC Softball Sweeps Doubleheader For First Wins Of The Season

By John Murphy CSC SID BOX SCORE 1 BOX SCORE 2

The Chadron State College softball team earned its first victories of the season Monday, sweeping Colorado School of Mines 6-4 and 3-2 in 10 innings.

The 4-game weekend series had been pushed back a day and moved to Colorado Christian University in Lakewood because of weather and field conditions at Mines in Golden, CO.
 
In game one, the Eagles scored 5 runs in the 5rd inning and added one more in the top of the 4th on way to their first victory of the season.
 
Knotted at zero, a one-out walk to Devyn Thornton gave CSC its first baserunner of the inning. Jessie Henchenski, a senior from Fort Collins, CO, singled to 3rd base, advancing Thornton to 2nd.
 
Ashland Baca, a senior form Pueblo West, CO, scored the Eagles first run of the game with an RBI single down the left field line, bringing Thornton home.
 
A fly out to center field that advanced Henchenski to 3rd base and left Baca at 1st was the second out of the inning for CSC, but Makenzi Kroll, a senior from Brighton, CO, launched a pitch over the left field wall for a 3-run home run, giving CSC a 4-0 lead.
 
After a pitching change by the Orediggers, Chadron State’s next batter, Sophia Brennan, a freshman from Wahoo, NE, needed only 2 pitches before homering down the left field line and extending the Eagles lead to 5.
 
It didn’t take long for School of Mines to answer. The Orediggers loaded the bases due to an error by the Eagle defense and a walk with a 2-out a single to center field scoring their first run of the game.
 
Mines added 2 more runs when the next batter singled up the middle, making the score 5-3. All 3 runs were unearned.
 
Chadron State extended its lead to 6-3 in the top of the 4th inning after loading the bases with 2 outs.

Henchenski singled through the left side, Baca advanced her to 2nd with a single of her own, and Lauren Zimmerman, a junior from Reno, Nevada, made it 3 straight single for CSC to load the bases. Henchenski scored the 6th run for the Eagles when Kroll was walked.
 
The Orediggers scored their final run of the game in the bottom of the 4th inning. Runners were on the corners with two outs when an RBI single down the left field line made the score 6-4.
 
Mines continued to threaten, left a runner on in the 5th inning and loading the bases in the bottom of the 7th before Kenzi Garner, a junior from Broomfield, CO, got the last out of the game on a flyball.
 
Garner earned her – and the team’s – first victory of the season with a complete game, scattering 7 hits while walking 2 and striking out 2. All 4 runs she gave up were unearned.

The Eagles handed Orediggers starter Sadriena Rodriguez her first loss of the season.
 
Game 2 was an epic extra-innings battle. CSC started once in the top of the 1st on an RBI single by Zimmerman that scored Henchenski.

The Orediggers tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the 3rd and took a 2-1 lead in the 5th on 3 consecutive singles.
 
The Eagles had two innings to tie the game but only needed one batter to do so. On the second pitch she saw in the 6th, Zimmerman homered to center field to tie the contest at 2 apiece.
 
Mines threatened in the bottom of the 7th, but couldn’t score a runner from 3rd while the Eagles wasted a walk in the 8th and a double in the 9th.

An error and a walk put runners and 1st and 2nd for the Orediggers in the bottom of the 9th, but pitcher Tori Haug ended the threat with a strikeout and a line-out to right.

CSC regained the lead in the top of the 10th when Henchenski hit a ball over the center field fence for the Eagles’ second solo homer of the game and a 3-2 advantage.
 
Mines threatened one last time in the bottom of the inning after a CSC error, but Haug struck out the final batter swinging to end the game.

Haug, like Garner in the opener, went the distance. The senior from Commerce City, CO, gave up 8 hits and 5 walks, but struck out 6 and allowed just the 2 earned runs.
 
Henchenski was the Eagles’ leading hitter on the day with 4 hits – 3 singles and a home run – and scored 4 runs while Kroll had a team-high 4 RBIs in the victories.
 
The Eagles return to action on Saturday, February 24, when they travel to Pueblo, Colorado for two doubleheaders with the Thunderwolves.