The Gorilla softball team dominated the weekend, with sweeps in doubleheaders against Northeastern State and Central Missouri.
The Gorillas started off strong against Northeastern State with Senior Sailor Hall hitting a single right to the pitcher and, thanks to an error, brought in two runs. Graduate Student Kadyn Trochim hit a home run to left field in the third to make the score three to zero. Northeastern State came back, though, scoring four in the fifth inning, with three of those points coming off two home runs. Senior Lexi Davis singled through the left infield to bring in a run, tying the game at four to four in the fifth. The game remained tied until the bottom of the seventh. With runners on second and third and one out in the inning, Davis was up to the plate. She hit the single her team needed, bringing in Senior Heather Arnett on a walk-off score to win five to four.
The Gorillas started off the second game against Northeastern State strong, with Davis hitting a double and bringing in two runs, and Junior Haili Igou hit a double to right center field to bring in two more runs to make the score four to one at the end of the first inning. Northeastern scored one in the second, with Trochim doubling to left center to bring in a run to make it five to two at the end of the second. In the fourth, Davis hit a home run to center field to score two, adding on to an already dominating game. Redshirt Freshman Graci Green then scored on a wild pitch to bring the score to eight to three. In the bottom of the sixth, Hall hit a home run down the infield line to score two more and end the game, with the final score being ten to four.
Trochim hit a double to center field in the first inning of the first game against Central Missouri to bring in two runs early. UCM quickly tied it up in the second, but the Gorillas scored two in the second thanks to hits by Junior Rachael Schlotter and Trochim. Igou grounded out in the sixth inning to bring in the final run, ending the game at five to two. While there wasn’t much scoring in this game, there was a very exciting moment for a player on the Gorillas.
Arnett broke another record in the first game against Central Missouri, and while this one wasn’t an NCAA record, it was an MIAA record. Arnett broke the record for career stolen bases with 155. She passed Christen Belcher from Truman State, who played there from 2005 to 2008. That record puts Arnett at 15 in Division II history for stolen bases.
While the Gorillas may have started down one to zero early in the second game against Central Missouri, they made sure not to let that last, with Junior Bailey Haselhorst getting a single off of an error and bringing in a run to tie the game, and Senior Kyleigh Lamont hitting a sac fly out to center field to bring in another run. UCM rallied quickly, pulling ahead six to three by the middle of the fourth inning. Lamont hit a home run to right-center field to bring in two runs in the fourth. The fifth inning was huge for the Gorillas, bringing in a total of six runs and putting the game out of reach for UCM. Igou started the scoring frenzy strong with a homerun to right center field to bring in two runs, and Hall singled through the left infield to bring in a score. Lamont singled up the middle to bring in a run, and Schlotter hit a double down the infield line to score two more runs, bringing the score in the fifth to nine to six. Lamont doubled down the left field line in the sixth inning to bring in a score and, even with a run scored by UCM in the seventh, won the game for the Gorillas with the final score being ten to eight.
These wins put the Gorillas at 43-2, marking the sixth time in Pittsburg State University history that the softball team had 40+ wins.
Pittsburg State Gorillas Softball returned to action with a doubleheader against Central Oklahoma at home on Friday, April 24.