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Kansas City
Centenary
UMKC Drops Two Games Despite Out-Hitting Centenary, 14-12
3/23/2009 10:30:00 PM | Softball
Shreveport, La. -- UMKC dropped to 5-23 on the year and 0-8 in The Summit League despite out-hitting the Ladies, 14-12. The Kangaroos lost game one of the three-game series, 1-0 in eight innings and dropped game two, 3-0. Centenary improves to 20-10 on the year and 3-1 in league play. UMKC and Centenary will wrap up the series at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Betsy Hanley led the Kangaroos in two games posting four hits in seven at bats.
Game One: Centenary 1 - UMKC 0 (8)
UMKC had plenty of opportunities to score, leaving eight runners stranded on base against Centenary on Monday afternoon. The Kangaroos best chance to get on the scoreboard came in the fourth inning, as they were able to load the bases with no outs. Chelsea Hartwig led off the inning with a single to left field and Hanley and Carli Slagle would follow in her lead, posting singles of their own. But the Ladies were able to rally up and force UMKC to hit into a double play to get out of the inning.
It wasn't until the eighth inning that Centenary was able to finally secure the win with the lone run of the game.
Suffering the loss for the Kangaroos was Taya Upkes, as she threw 4.1 innings. Upkes gave up six hits and no earned runs while striking out three. Sam Hurst was also on the mound for UMKC as she started and was relieved in the fourth.
Game Two: Centenary 3 - UMKC 0
Both teams struggled initially in the first four innings, with UMKC posting the only hit of the game at that point in time. But the Centenary bats would come alive in the fifth as they were finally able to get on the scoreboard with one run off of two hits. The Ladies struck again in the sixth inning as they were able to tack on two more runs off of three hits.
UMKC again was able to load the bases in the top of the seventh but top notch pitching from Hillary Phillips would get her team out of the inning and take the win, despite the bases being loaded for the Kangaroos. Phillips finished game two with nine strike outs in seven innings.
Nicholle Ellis suffers the loss for UMKC, despite throwing 5.2 innings. Ellis allowed three runs to score off of five hits with two of the runs being earned.
The pair will wrap up the series tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. in Shreveport, La.
