The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Megan Brownell photojournalist
Over the course of spring break, Gorilla softball played a total of six games. They started the break with two conference doubleheaders on Mar 12 and 13. They started the weekend at the University of Central Missouri, and dropped both games. The next day they traveled to Lincoln University, and won both games.
They finished off the break on Mar 17 in a doubleheader home non-conference game against Winona State University. They split those games to go 3-3 over the break and bring their record to 17-9. Head coach Jenny Fuller was proud of her team for bouncing back after tough losses to UCM and giving more confidence going up against more conference teams.
“We were disappointed in UCM, it wasn’t our best day but we bounced back really well against Lincoln and are feeling good heading into the games this weekend,” Fuller said.
In game one against the Jennies, they took an early 2-0 lead after the top of the first, but UCM quickly tied it up with two of their own in the bottom of the first. PSU would not score again, giving the Jennies a 7-2 win. Game two was similar, but UCM took the first lead with two runs in the third. PSU tied it up in the fourth with two of their own, however UCM took the lead back with one run in the bottom of the fifth. They held on, for a UCM win 4-2.
In game one against LU, PSU had a great day offensively, taking game one 12-3. LU took a quick 1-0 lead, but four runs in the third and eighth runs in the fourth from the Gorillas pushed an 11 run lead. After LU scored only two more, the game was run-ruled after the fifth inning. With game two, Hannah Harrison pitched a two hitter with two strikeouts to give PSU an 8-0 win. They scored their runs early, with two in the first and six in the second, and after no other runs scored it was again run-ruled after the fifth. Fuller liked getting the break from class and how the team was excited to spend time together and focus on just softball.
“We had good energy all week, we had good practices and the team was excited to be with each other.” Fuller said. “We could only focus on softball and didn’t have to worry about school.”
Lastly, they took on WSU and won game one 3-0 from another great pitching performance from Harrison, who only registered one hit, and got five strikeouts. They started the game with a 2-0 lead, and scored one more in the fourth inning to get to the 3-0 win. With game two, PSU started with the lead of one after the first. WSU was able to get things moving on their offense, scoring one run in the fourth to tie it, and followed with three in the fifth to take their first lead of the day. PSU wasn’t able to score again, taking a 4-1 loss. Fuller was happy to split against WSU, and wants to use that to focus on conference play continuing.
“They are a good team, so splitting with them is not a bad thing,” Fuller said. “ They are coached really well and we could have won that second game but they are good and that’s alright because next weekend is really what matters.”
The Gorillas will next host their conference home opening weekend with doubleheaders against no.2 Rogers State University on Mar 24 at 3 and 5 p.m, then on Mar 25 against Northeastern State University at 1 and 3 p.m.