St. Louis, Mo. -- The Spartans split a closely contested doubleheader against William Woods on Friday. MBU fell to the Owls in game one 3-2 in eight innings but struck back in the second game with a 6-4 victory.
 
Delissa Dennison toed the rubber in game one for the Spartans and found herself in some trouble in the first inning. After two of the first three Owls reached to start the game, Alli Massey was able to plate a run with a sacrifice fly to put her team up 1-0. Dennison stranded the last runner with a strike out to end the inning.
 
Both pitchers found their groove in the middle innings as the game remained 1-0 until the sixth inning. In the bottom of the sixth, the Spartans put a few runners on base to set the stage for Amber Mobbs to tie the game with a sacrifice fly.
 
Lindy Wilson answered quickly for William Woods in the top of the seventh with an RBI single to put the Owls back up 2-1. The Spartans continued to battle back in the bottom of the seventh. A Jordan Corby triple set the stage for Caitlin McNiff's clutch game-tying double.
 
Unfortunately, the gritty Spartans fell short in extras as they went on to lose 3-2 in eight innings. It was an undeserved loss for Dennison as she threw all eight innings, 163 pitches, and collected eight strikeouts.
 
Ally Dunaway also got off to a rocky start in game two as well but got out of the inning unscathed. McNiff kept the hot bat going with a first pitch home run in the bottom of the inning to give MBU a 1-0 lead.
 
Two more crossed the plate in the bottom of second inning thanks to Mobbs' RBI triple and Reily Kassay's sacrifice squeeze. William Woods finally got to Dunaway in the third with a run to make the score 3-1.
 
After consecutive outs to begin the bottom of the fourth, Ally Gischer doubled and later scored to extend the Spartan lead.
 
The Owls continued to fight back by plating two more runs in the top of the fifth. MBU continued to apply the pressure in the bottom half with two runs of their own.
 
The visitors went on to push across one more run in the top of the sixth inning, but the comeback bid ultimately fell short.
 
Dunaway finished the afternoon with a complete game win, two earned runs allowed, and one strike out. Her record improved to 7-8 while her team's record improved to 10-8 in the AMC.
 
MBU currently sits in seventh place in the conference with a chance to do more damage in the standings against the Park University Pirates tomorrow afternoon at Spartan Field. The first pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 12 p.m.