ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist University softball team found the runs few and far between in Monday's AMC series against Hannibal-LaGrange University, but squeezed out a win in the opening game to salvage a doubleheader split.
 
Behind a pair of triples (Meddows, Kassay), a 3-for-3 outing at the plate from Madalyn Bone and stellar pitching from Delissa Dennison, the Spartans claimed a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Trojans in game one. Luck wasn't on MBU's side in the nightcap as the bats went silent in a 6-0 shutout loss to finish the day.
 
The Spartans (15-16, 9-7 AMC) had a chance to overtake the Trojans in the AMC standings with a sweep on Monday, but are still one game back after the split. Hannibal-LaGrange sits in sixth place at 18-14, 10-6 AMC.
 
Averaging 7.4 hits per game, the Spartans were held under their average in both contests Monday at Spartan Softball Field. Aside from freshman Madalyn Bone going 4-for-5, the rest of the team was 4-for-41 (.097) on the afternoon.
 
In Game One, the Trojans wasted little time plating three hits within the first four at-bats. HLGU's offensive leader Jordyn Alford drove in two runs on a double to open the scoring and put the Spartans in a 2-0 hole.
 
Missouri Baptist had runners in scoring position twice in the first two frames, but failed to convert. The third inning was a different story. Reily Kassay tripled to left-center thanks to some gutsy baserunning, immediately followed by a Jordan Corby RBI single. More intelligent baserunning helped the Spartans score the game-tying run when Madalyn Bone beat out a wild throw to first and Jordan Corby went all the way from first to home. Via the error, Bone advanced to third and scored the go-ahead run with a Caitlin McNiff sac fly.
 
That was all the Spartans needed though as junior Delissa Dennison was in the zone following the first inning. After allowing three hits in the opening frame, she gave up just two hits and no runs the rest of the way. The righthander, who ranks among the AMC's top pitchers in strikeouts, fanned eight Trojans in total. Dennison improved to 8-6 in the circle this season.
 
The strong pitching and defensive continued into the finale with the teams recording just five combined hits in the first three innings.
 
Like the first game, Hannibal-LaGrange scored first and did so with a large string of runs. In the top of the 4^th, the Trojans hit three consecutive singles with the second one landing right on the RF line. The visitors notched two runs, but seized complete control of the momentum with two outs on the board when MBU misplayed a grounder allowing another two runs to score.
 
The Spartans' struggling offense couldn't gain any traction late despite having at least one baserunner on in each of the last four innings. Hannibal-LaGrange added two more insurance runs in the 7^th to make it a 6-0 ballgame.