MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (March 2) – The Waynesburg University softball team split its opening two games at the Fast Pitch Dreams Spring Classic in Myrtle Beach on Sunday. The Yellow Jackets dropped a 9-0 game to Spartanburg Methodist in the spring break opener before bouncing back with a 3-2 win over Wilkes in the second game.
Seven of Spartanburg Methodist's runs in the six-inning opening ballgame were unearned as the Pioneers took advantage of four Waynesburg errors. The Jackets scored twice in the top of the seventh to steal a 3-2 win over the Colonels.
Game 1 – Spartanburg Methodist 9, Waynesburg 0 (6 innings)
The Pioneers, a member of the NAIA and playing their 13th game of the season, scored five unearned runs in the top of the sixth to trigger a run-rule victory after the Jackets batted in the bottom half of the frame.
Spartanburg Methodist led 3-0 after two innings and 4-0 after four before scoring the remaining runs in the sixth. Waynesburg scattered six hits by six different players.
Autumn Stemple (Morgantown, W.Va. / University) allowed four runs, two earned, in four innings of work as Waynesburg's starting pitcher.
Madison Baker (Kittanning, Pa. / Armstrong) gave up five unearned runs in 1.2 innings while
Pressley Meadows (Annapolis, Ohio / Edison) retired the only hitter she faced.
Game 2 – Waynesburg 3, Wilkes 2
After trailing 1-0 through five innings, Waynesburg tied Wilkes in the top of the sixth as
Breanna Rice (Morgantown, W.Va. / Morgantown) worked a two-out bases loaded walk. The Colonels went ahead 2-1 as a runner scored from second on an infield single with two outs in the bottom of the frame.
Mackenzie Kearns (Elizabeth, Pa. / Elizabeth Forward) reached safely with a one-out single and scored to tie the game on a towering double to center field off the bat of
Meysa Heitmann (Morgantown, W.Va. / University). Heitmann scampered home on a successful safety squeeze by
Dilyn Roberts (Sellersburg, Indiana / Henryville) to give the Jackets a 3-2 lead.
Kearns made a running catch in the left-center field gap in seventh as
Sydney Wilson (Pentress, W.Va. / Clay-Battelle) sat down the Colonels in order to secure the one-run win.
Wilkes led 1-0 after the first inning as a walk and back-to-back singles, all with two outs, plated the first run of the ballgame. After a Waynesburg error to start the second inning, Wilson retired 10-consectuive batters, not allowing another baserunner until the fifth.
The Jackets stranded a runner on second in the second and fifth innings and had a runner thrown out attempting to steal second in the fourth before finally breaking through in the sixth.
Two infield singles and an error loaded the bases with out in the sixth. Wilkes got a force out at the plate before Rice's walk tied the game at one.
Wilson picked up the complete game win to move to 2-0 on the season. She struck out six and allowed two earned runs on five hits with one walk.
Heitmann and Rice both had two hits and one RBI. Heitmann and Roberts both drove in and scored a run.
The Jackets take on North Carolina Wesleyan tomorrow at 9 a.m. and Valley Forge at 3 p.m. in Myrtle Beach.
