Maryville 3, Parkside 0
Parkside 4, Maryville 1
The Parkside softball team opened their weekend road trip with a doubleheader against the Maryville Saints. The Rangers offense struggled to get anything going in the first game, and wasted a solid starting pitching performance as they were shutout by the Saints. The second game featured a strong defensive battle for most of the game, before a late offensive surge lifted the Rangers to victory.
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GAME 1
The two teams got off to slow starts offensively, with the game staying scoreless through two innings. The Saints got on the board in the bottom of the third with Lexi Touchette hitting a homerun to center field to take a 1-0 lead.
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The Rangers had their first runner in scoring position in the top of the fifth inning as Jaydnn Powell was hit by a pitch to open the inning.
Tai Gonzales pinch ran and advanced to second base on a ground out, but was left stranded as the Rangers would have to find another opportunity to get on the scoreboard.
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The Saints earned their second run in the bottom the sixth, as Emily Corona doubled to score Taylor Shingler. A double for Kylie Swinney would score Corona to increase the lead to 3-0. The Rangers would fail to score in the seventh inning, as the Saints would go on to take game one of the series.
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Olivia Masnica was handed the loss in the start, pitching a season high 5.1 innings and allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out four.
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GAME 2
The latter half of the doubleheader started in a very similar way, with both teams going scoreless through the first two innings, with Maryville accounting for the only hit. The Rangers first hit came in the third inning, with a single from
Tia Livernash. The Saints earned another hit to start the bottom of the third, but Parkside's starting pitcher
Kiley Akey got through the inning unscathed and left the runner stranded.
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Two hits and a walk to start the bottom of the fourth set the Saints up with the first true scoring opportunity of the game. Back-to-back fielder's choice plays allowed a run to score. Kiley then forced a flyout to end the ending, limiting the damage to a minimum.
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The Rangers offense finally found life in the top of the sixth inning.
Rylee Baetz got the action started with a walk, and was then moved to third on a one-out double by
Mia Johnson. Then with two away in the inning,
Meagan Maza doubled down the third base line, scoring both runners and giving the Rangers their first lead of the day. Immediately following up Maza's hit, was Powell, who sent the first pitch she saw over the left field fence for her first homerun of the season. The rally would give the Rangers a 4-1 lead, which would be enough to earn the win and split the day with the Saints.
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Akey earned her fifth complete game of the season and improves to 4-2 on the year with a 1.91 earned run average.
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HEAR FROM COACH ORTMAN
"A disappointing loss to start the day. I thought Olivia pitched really well and we were able to get her into the sixth inning confidently for the first time this year. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the bats going and really never gave ourselves an opportunity to score.
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Our second game started out in a very similar fashion, Kiley pitched well from the beginning and delivered another really strong performance. She got into a little bit of hot water in the fourth with the bases loaded and no outs, but she managed to tightrope out of danger thanks to some quality pitches and strong defensive plays behind her to keep us in the game. Our sixth inning was when the bats really came alive, especially with the big hits for Mia, Meagan, and Jadynn. Overall, a solid day. We'll be right back at it tomorrow."
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UP NEXT FOR THE RANGERS
The Rangers return to action on Sunday, March 5 as they look to win the series against Maryville with another doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. For more information, visit
parksiderangers.com.
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