Softball Run-Ruled Twice on Saturday at Mizzou Invitational

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Drake softball team returned to the diamond for the second day of the Mizzou Invitational on Saturday and took two more losses, both in five innings, against Wichita State and Missouri.
 
Wichita State 10, Drake 1
The Bulldogs found themselves down early as the Shockers hung two runs on the board in the top of the first with a sacrifice fly and an RBI base knock. Wichita only grew its lead from there as its bats were hot, unlike the first meeting between the two sides yesterday.
 
Wichita added five runs in the second inning to the tune of three solo homers and a double pushing the score to 7-0. The following three innings then went scoreless, but the Shockers found their power again hitting their fourth home run of the game, this time a three-run blast, in the top of the fifth.
 
Drake avoided the shutout as it got one run across the plate in the bottom of the fifth via a sac fly from Tatum Aragon, but that was all with the run rule being enacted after the fifth frame.
 
Kiley Kindelspire and Frankie Rita, the one-two hitters in Drake’s lineup, provided four of the five hits in the game for the Bulldogs.
 
Missouri 10, Drake 2
It was another rough start for the Bulldogs in their second game of the day as Missouri posted back-to-back four-run frames putting Drake in an 8-0 hole after just two innings.
 
The Bulldogs offense, meanwhile, had no answer against Missouri starting pitcher Marissa McCann, who ended her day with 12 strikeouts and struck out eight of the first 10 batters she faced.
 
Following a scoreless third frame, the Bulldogs finally got a break against McCann with a two-run homer by Cassidy Gall. Gall’s long ball was just one of two hits in the contest for Drake.
 
Missouri then tacked on one more run in the bottom fourth and added another in the fifth, which ended the game.
 
With expected temperatures to be below freezing tomorrow, Drake’s last game of the weekend against Miami (OH) has been canceled. The Bulldogs will be back in action next weekend for the Colorado State Tournament, March 6-8, from Fort Collins and Greely, Colorado.