ST. LOUIS – Junior
Caitlin McNiff had a career day with a pair of home runs and 8 RBIs as Missouri Baptist University softball completed the conference sweep of St. Louis College of Pharmacy Tuesday at Spartan Softball Field. The Spartans coasted to an 11-1 "run-rule" victory to begin the afternoon and then held off the Eutectics in game two, 5-3.
With a pair of AMC wins, Missouri Baptist improves to 5-3 in the conference. At 11-12 overall, the Spartans can get back over .500 on Thursday when they host St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) for a non-conference doubleheader at 3 & 5 p.m.
Offense was not an issue for Missouri Baptist in its 11-1 triumph over STLCOP in game one. The Spartans got out to a 1-0 lead in the opening frame on a
MaKenzie Harbaugh double and
Meagan Elder single to right. They pushed the margin to 4-0 in the second with most of the damage being done with two outs.
Rachel Galbraith got things started with a triple, which was followed by singles from
Jordan Corby, Elder and McNiff and a walk for Harbaugh.
The top of the fourth was when the fireworks began and once again came with two outs on the board. First baseman
Caitlin McNiff swung on the first pitch and sent it over the left field wall for a 2-run homer.
With a 6-0 lead in the top of the sixth, McNiff came to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs. When opportunity came knocking at the door, the junior from Florissant, Mo., capitalized. With her fourth hit of the game, McNiff smashed a grand slam to left-center for RBIs No. 4, 5, 6 & 7. Her previous career-high for RBIs in a game was 6, which also happened to come against St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 2018.
Defensively, the pitching duo of
Delissa Dennison (4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 8 K) and
Addison Rinderer (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER,) held the Eutetics in check allowing just three hits in game one.
The flow of game two was much different.
Jordan Corby and
Caitlin McNiff teamed up to score MBU's first run in game two, but while the Spartans jumped out to another 1-0 lead, the Eutectics got on the board much quicker. STLCOP notched three hits in the bottom of the first, which matched the total number of hits from the game prior. Fortunately, for starting pitcher
Ally Dunaway and the Spartans, they were able to get out of a bases-loaded jam surrendering just one run and stranding three Eutectic baserunners.
St. Louis College of Pharmacy took its first lead of the day in the second inning and did so in two-out fashion. It wasn't until the fourth inning that the Spartans tied it up. Then in the sixth,
MaKenzie Harbaugh registered her second triple of the year to score the go-ahead run.
Ally Gischer added an RBI single to score Harbaugh and give the Spartans a 4-2 advantage.
Jordan Corby, who was 3-for-4 in game two with two doubles and three stolen bases, added one more run for safe measure in the seventh. With
Delissa Dennison getting the nod to finish off the Eutectics, STLCOP made one final push and scored by way of error, but ended on back-to-back Dennison strikeouts.
Madalyn Bone joined
Jordan Corby in game two with a 3-for-4 clip at the plate as well as three stolen bases.
Ally Dunaway got the win and finished with 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB and 4 Ks.
Delissa Dennison was credited with the save.
