Story by Zach Scott, staff writer
Despite having hot bats in Sunday’s cold weather, the Racers dropped both games in the doubleheader against Southeast Missouri State.
The Racers dropped the first game 8-7, then the second game 11-8 later that day.
Game One
In the first game, the Racers gave up three runs in the top of the first, but they took no time answering back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first off of a three-run homerun by sophomore first basemen Lexi Jones.
SEMO answered Murray State right back in the second inning with three more runs.
In the fourth inning, junior second basemen Lillie Goetz singled for the Racers, scoring two to make it 5-6 in favor of SEMO.
Freshman shortstop Sierra Gilmore tacked on two more with a two-run triple later on in the fourth inning to give the Racers a 7-6 lead.
The Racers weren’t able to hold on, however, giving up two runs in the top of the seventh to lose the first game 8-7.
Freshman center fielder Jensen Striegel finished the game three for four with a run scored.
Game Two
Like the first game, the Racers gave up three early runs in the top of the first and answered back immediately in the bottom of the inning.
In the third inning, Murray State tacked on two more against SEMO, giving the team a 5-4 lead.
The Redhawks scored later in the fourth to tie it back at five. They later added on six more runs in the sixth and seventh innings to give them a 11-5 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Jones launched a three-run homerun over the centerfield wall, cutting SEMO’s lead to 11-8.
The deficit was too large to overcome, though, as the Racers dropped the second game 11-8.
Amundson was happy with her offense’s showing Sunday night, scoring 15 runs in two games.
“Big time kudos to our hitters today, they showed up, scored plenty of runs,” Amundson said. “I can’t say enough about their production on the day, and the fact that it wasn’t enough is a hard pill to swallow.”
Amundson said in order for her team to win games, they need support from the pitching staff inside the circle.
“We have the pitching staff, they just need to step up their mentality a little bit,” Amundson said.
The softball season is long, and the Racers have no time to sit back and reflect on Sunday’s games.
“We don’t have time to think about, we don’t have time to dwell on it, we don’t have time to even fix it necessarily in terms of mechanics,” Amundson said.
The Racers are back in action at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 9, for a doubleheader against UT Martin.