David Almeda (Staff Writer)
With an impressive 5-1 record among Atlantic Sun opponents, KSU’s softball team took the field at Bailey Park Saturday with a chance to tear through another conference rival behind their strong pitching.
Things didn’t quite pan out that way.
While Amanda Henderson and Paige Matthews did turn in some good pitching performances, costly errors and ultimately, lack of any offense doomed the Owls (15-14, 5-3 A-Sun) as they dropped both games of a doubleheader to Lipscomb, 2-0 and 5-0 on Saturday.
“We have to hit the ball,” head coach Wes Holly Jr. said. “If you don’t score, you can’t win. We had some decent pitching in the first game, just did not produce any back-to-back hits in the second game. You’ve got to put the ball in play.”
KSU led the day off behind the arm of Henderson, who fanned seven Bison over seven innings pitched, allowing five hits in game one.
While their ace was busy posting zeroes on the board, the Owls offense struggled to piece together hits, or even base runners. Hints of a potential rally appeared in the second inning when Angie Dascoli and Courtney Sutter both reached on a walk and a single, but the Bison would escape the inning unscathed.
That story repeated itself in the fifth, when a Carly Van Auken double and a Kara Chambers single gave the Owls some much needed runners, but again, KSU did not capitalize and would eventually take the 2-0 shutout loss.
KSU’s hitting woes didn’t end with the first contest. Behind Paige Matthews, the offense struggled more in game two. For the first 5.2 innings of the game, the Owls were on the receiving end of a perfect game, unable to even amass a single baserunner. Missy Perkowski’s two out single in the sixth broke up Lipscomb’s no-hit bid, but it was one of only two KSU hits in the game as they dropped game two, 5-0.
Matthews also pitched a complete game, striking out five, but allowed four unearned runs because of three Owl miscues.
Coach Holly saw more in the losses than just a lack of offense and costly errors.
“I don’t feel like they showed up mentally prepared today,” Holly said. “They showed up with their bodies, but not their minds. I think it was a lack of mental focus today.”
Holly Jr. also saw a few positives, but not anything that could make up for the team’s performance.
“I thought a couple of people made some big plays. Natalie [Rhodes] made some big plays defensively, Amanda made some good pitches. I think we had a couple of people do some things right, but collectively as a unit, they were not together.”
The Owls hope to regroup Sunday as they take on Lipscomb in the series finale at 1 p.m.
