BLUE DRAGONS EARN SWEEP AT NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
GAINSVILLE, TEXAS – The Hutchinson Community College softball team completed a 3-1 weekend on Sunday with a doubleheader sweep of North Central Texas College.
The Blue Dragons rallied in Game 1 with a two-run fifth inning for a 6-5 victory. The Dragons then unloaded 13 hits and took advantage of four NCTC errors for a 14-1 run-rule victory in five innings.
The Blue Dragons complete the Murray State-North Central Texas weekend run with a 3-1 record after dropping all four games last season. Hutchinson is 7-3 overall with scheduled home games on Thursday against the Friends JV on Thursday and Cloud County on Friday at Fun Valley.
GAME 1 RECAP
Trailing 5-4 after four innings, the Blue Dragons loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fifth. A Natalie Bevan groundout to first base scored Ella Dougherty to tie the game. Then with two out, Easton Swanson grounded a ball to the left side and was safe on a fielder's choice, which allowed Haley Miller to score the go-ahead run for a 6-5 lead.
Riley Wertz slammed the door on any North Central comeback with four innings of scoreless relief pitching to earn her second win of the weekend. A day after her 11-strikeout performance in the Dragons' 10-inning victory over Murray State, Wertz struck out four to earn the pitching win.
The Blue Dragons had seven hits in the opening game, four were extra bases – doubles by Bevan and Madison Grimes and home runs from Carley Sterneker and Wertz.
Dougherty was 2 for 4 with two runs scored. Sternecker drove in two runs with a second-inning two-run homer. The Blue Dragons took a 4-0 lead in the third with a Wertz leadoff homer and Grimes two-out RBI double.
North Central Texas took a 5-4 lead in the third with a five-run inning.
Starting pitcher Emily Munson worked 2 1-3 innings, allowing three hits and four runs. Morgan Pennycuff worked the final two outs of the third inning.
GAME 2 RECAP
The Blue Dragons scored in four of their five offensive innings in Game 2, unloading for 11 runs in their final two at-bats.
Allie Stipsits led the Blue Dragons' 13-hit attack going 3 for 4 with a double and two runs scored.
Dougherty went 2 for 3 with three runs and two RBIs. Grimes went 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBIS. Bevan also went 2 for 4 as did Sternecker.
Wertz was 1 for 1 with two walks, but she hit a three-run home run.
Sadie Loney worked two-plus innings, but got into trouble in the third. Kirsten Weitze entered the game in the third with a run already across and two runners on and no out. Weitze got a strikeout for the first out of the inning. Stipsits cut down a stolen base attempt for the second out and Weitze fielded a grounder for the final out of the inning to keep the Blue Dragon lead at 4-1.
Weitze earned the pitching win with two shutout innings. Wertz closed the game down in the fifth with two strikeouts.