The North Central Missouri College women’s softball team braved cold and windy conditions on Thursday.
The Lady Pirates split the doubleheader with Central Methodist University. North Central lost the opening game, 8-7, but came back to win the second game, 11-3.
“We have to do a better job when it comes to the little things,” Head Coach Max Mothersbaugh said. “Hopefully, the first game was a good lesson and we can build off it.”
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Twice the Lady Pirates had two-run leads and could not hold them. In the third inning of game one, NCMC led 4-2, only to see the lead fade. In the fifth inning, the Lady Pirates pieced together three runs and took a 7-5 advantage into the top of the seventh inning.
CMU got in leadoff runner on because of an error. A base hit and a sacrifice got runners to second and third.
“We made a bad choice,” Mothersbaugh said. “Sometimes outs are more important than runs. We tried to hold the runner on third base, which is fine, but then we threw the ball to third instead of first. We did get the out at third and the batter was safe at first. So instead of having two outs with a runner on second, we had only one out with runners on first, second and third.”
The Lady Eagles strung together two hits and grabbed the lead, 8-7. The Lady Pirates made a run at CMU in the bottom of the seventh. NCMC had two runners on base with two outs when Kristin Buhrmeister hit the ball to the fence.
“She absolutely crushed it,” Mothersbaugh said. “When it left the bat, I thought it was gone. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t carry well and their centerfielder literally caught it with her back against the fence.”
Erica Carr took the loss in relief. Mandy Monkman led the offense with three hits and three RBIs. Buhrmeister had a pair of doubles and two RBIs. Mylssa McCrary had two doubles and scored a pair of runs.
“You never want to lose, but there were some positives,” Mothersbaugh said. “You have to like it when your eight and nine hitter go 5-of-6 and you have to like the way the entire team hit the ball.”
The Lady Pirates took care of business in the second game, winning by seven runs. Loren Stark was the winning pitcher. Tiffany Graham went 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Monkman added two more hits and scored two runs. Buhrmeister added a pair of RBIs.
After splitting the doubleheader, the Lady Pirates are 14-15 and will be playing make-up games next week. Exact days and times will be announced later.
