Huntingdon softball comes up short against NAIA Missouri Baptist

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon softball team battled Missouri Baptist on Tuesday but lost both games of a doubleheader 6-3 and 5-4. The final game against the NAIA team went 10 innings.

The doubleheader was the third for the Lady Hawks in three days and two states. Huntingdon swept conference foe Mary Baldwin on Sunday in Virginia, split with conference rival Ferrum on Monday in Virginia and arrived back on campus Tuesday morning.

Heather McGuirk, Holly Ostrander and Halleigh DiNicholas each had two hits to combine for six of the Lady Hawks' 13 hits in Tuesday's doubleheader. Junior catcher Amy Caroline Riley hit her first home run as a Hawk, smashing a solo home run in Game 2.

In Game 1, Ostrander and DiNicholas were both 2-for-3 with a RBI and McGuirk was 1-for-2 with a RBI and two runs. Jenna Rimensnyder scored one run and stole two bases. Rimensnyder finished the day with three stolen bases.

Kaitlynn Wiggins (1-2) took the loss in relief of starter Brooke Meadows. Meadows (4-3) took the loss in Game 2 in relief of starter Katy Messick. Messick held Missouri Baptist to three hits in the first five innings, scattered seven hits for the game and allowed two runs in seven innings.

Tied 2-2 after seven innings in Game 2, Huntingdon (10-9) fell behind 4-2 in the top of the ninth. With Blake Rowland on third and Ashlee Zachmeyer on second, Morgan Goshorn grounded out to score Rowland and Zachmeyer scored on the throw to tie the game 4-4.

The Spartans took the lead in the top of the 10th and forced three ground outs in the bottom of the 10th to end the game.

Riley's solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third inning gave Huntingdon a 1-0 lead and McGuirk scored on a DiNicholas ground out in the fifth inning to make it a 2-1 game.

Huntingdon returns to action on Saturday with a conference doubleheader at home against Maryville. Game 1 is set for 1 p.m.