TUCSON, ARIZ. – Valley City State earn a split of the two games they played Wednesday in Arizona. The Vikings lost to #19 Midland 11-3 and bounced back to beat Westcliff University 7-5.
Valley City State is 10-10 on the season, Midland is 14-6, Westcliff is 11-9.
GAME 1: Midland 11, Valley City 3 F/5
Midland scored four runs in the second and third innings on the way to its 14
th win of the season.
Alexis Shepherd singled in Grace Behrns in the top of the first for a 1-0 lead.
Valley City State got that lead back on bases loaded walk to
Kennadi Stone.
The Warriors scored four runs, three coming with two out. A run scored on an error to make it 2-1 Warriors. Shepherd added a two run double to make it 4-1. Sophie De Rouin scored on Jaidan Wehrle's single to make it 5-1.
Midland added four more in the third inning. De Rouin brought in two with a single. Shepherd added a two-run single to make it 9-1.
The Vikings got one run back on a sacrifice fly by
Reagan Mieras in the bottom of the third.
Jenna Decker added an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-3.
In the top of the fifth, and two outs, Behrns lined one down the left field line,
Olivia Kalbus made a diving attempt to catch the ball, but it got by her and Behrns had an inside-the-park home run to make it 10-3. Shepherd drove in her sixth run of the game with her fourth hit of the game later in the inning to make the final 11-3.
Jenna Decker had both hits for the Vikings and drove in one run.
Kennadi Stone and
Reagan Mieras had the other RBI.
Pascale Kihn scored twice and
Madden Bogenreif scored once.
GAME 2: Valley City State 7, Westcliff University 5
In game two, eight different Vikings had at least one hit, and VCSU scored two runs in the top of the seventh for the win.
VCSU scored one run in each of the first three innings. An RBI single by Decker made it 1-0 in the top of the first.
Avery Kuklinski brought in a run with a single in the top of the second. A sacrifice fly by
Ahleeya Nicola made it 3-0 Vikings heading to the bottom of the third.
In the home half of the third, Nadia Carrillo had a two-run single to make it 3-2. Madison Mendez would bring in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-3.
In the top of the fourth, a sacrifice fly by
Jenna Decker made it 4-3 Vikings. Nicola drove in a run with a single to make it 5-3.
Jessica Guillen tripled in a run in the bottom of the fourth. Then a ground out by Justice Reese tied the game at 5-5.
Valley City State to the lead back with two in the top of the seventh. A triple by Mieras brought in Kalbus to make it 6-5. Kowalyk scored on error to make it 7-5.
The Warriors did get the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh. But
Cooper Klaahsen closed the door to pick up the win in the circle. She allowed three hits and no runs in four innings of work. She did not walk a batter and fanned four.
Jenna Decker capped off a great day by going 2 for 4 with a run and two RBI.
Katelyn MacNeill was 2 for 4 with two runs scored, a double, a triple, and an RBI.
Avery Kuklinski was 1 for 2 with a run scored and an RBI.
Kennadi Stone and
Reagan Mieras were both 1 for 2.
Ahleeya Nicola was 1 for 3 with two RBI, and
Pascale Kihn was 1 for 4 with an RBI.
UP NEXT: The Vikings wrap up the Arizona trip with two games on Thursday. First, they play Bethesda University of California at 11:00 am CT. Then they take on Indiana Tech who was receiving votes in the most recent NAIA Softball Top 25 Poll. That game is at 1:00 pm CT.
