SOUTH CHARLESTON, W. Va. -- From top to bottom, the Shawnee State softball program has a batting order that is, simply put, a well-rounded group at the plate.
Kristen Bradshaw's group more than proved that fact in a Thursday afternoon River States Conference Tournament matchup against the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Pomeroys' softball program, as Shawnee State overcame a 3-0 deficit in the opening half inning of action by scoring five runs in the bottom half of the first frame and then adding in three more tallies each in the fifth and sixth frames of play to emerge with an 11-4 triumph in SSU's first contest in the River States Conference Softball Championship Tournament at Little Creek Park in South Charleston, W. Va.
Game Summary
Shawnee State, who improved to 27-16 with Thursday's triumph, has now won four straight games, with three wins coming against Saint Mary-of-the-Woods over the last five days alone. The Bears went a blistering 13-of-29 (.448) at the plate to keep the Pomeroys (18-27) on their heels throughout the game.
Shawnee State will now play No. 1-seeded Rio Grande at 12 p.m. Friday afternoon in a River States Conference Softball Championship Tournament matchup that will be held at Little Creek Park in South Charleston. The winner of that contest plays at 4 p.m. against either No. 2 Indiana-Southeast or No. 3 Oakland City, while the loser of that game plays No. 6 Indiana-Columbus at 2 p.m. in what will be a must-win to stay alive in the double-elimination bracket.
Bears battle back from behind
Despite trailing by a three-spot after the opening half-inning of play after an RBI bunt single by Saint Mary-of-the-Woods' Jaidyn Fuller and an RBI single by Mikayla Mills with another run scoring on an error on the same play, Shawnee State's offense showed early poise as the Bears sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening half-inning to get on the board.
Following a leadoff walk by Sierra Dunnagan, Genavie Espinoza singled down the right field line, and both players moved up a base on a wild pitch to put both Dunnagan and Espinoza in scoring position with just one gone in the bottom half of the opening frame.
While Mackenzie Hale walked to load the bases, it appeared that Saint Mary-of-the-Woods would work out of danger after getting a strikeout to move within one out of getting out of the inning completely with no damage done.
Instead, Shawnee State kept plugging away -- as a walk on a full count by Bianca Belo-Diaz drove in Dunnagan, while two timely hits, one a two-RBI single to left center field by Cam Davidson and the other a solidly hit two-RBI rope single to left by Sydney Skiver, turned what was a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 Shawnee State lead by the end of the opening frame.
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods was able to cut the lead slightly to 5-4 after three innings complete on another RBI single by Mills, which scored Fuller.
However, Shawnee State never relented.
In the fifth, the Bears got right back on the prowl -- as back-to-back one-out singles by Emily Moore and Bianca Belo-Diaz to right center field were followed by a well-hit ball by Davidson that not only dropped to bring Moore around, but also brought Belo-Diaz on in as a booted ball on the same play in the outfield allowed both runners to score. Davidson then scored later in the frame as well -- allowing Shawnee State to lay stake to an 8-4 lead by the end of the fifth frame.
The Bears then punctuated its seven-run win in the sixth -- as Dunnagan led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a single while Jenna Christopher reached on her own bunt single with Dunnagan advancing all the way to third base via an error on the same play.
Then, after a stolen base by Christopher and a walk by Espinoza that loaded the bases with nobody out, an RBI groundout by Mackenzie Hale was followed by two runs with two gone in the frame by the Bears as Christopher scored on a wild pitch while Belo-Diaz put the exclamation point on the 11-run performance with an RBI single to left to score Espinoza and conclude matters.
Additional
For the contest, Belo-Diaz and Davidson each went 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored with Belo-Diaz drawing a walk to lead Shawnee State's offensive performance. Emily Cheatham went 2-for-3 at the plate to join the duo in the multi-hit column while Dunnagan (1-for-3, walk, two runs scored), Christopher (1-for-3, run scored), Espinoza (1-for-3, walk, two runs scored), Moore (1-for-4, run scored) and Skiver (1-for-4, two RBI) all reached base via a hit in the win.
Friday afternoon's River States Conference Softball Tournament contest against Rio Grande can be seen at portal.stretchinternet.com/rsc, as can the remainder of the contests.
