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Box Score 2 JOPLIN, Mo. – Griffon Softball head coach
Jen Bagley Trotter earned her 500
th career victory in dramatic fashion as her team split two games on the second day of the Teri-Mathis Zenner Memorial Tournament in Joplin.
After dropping the first game of the day, 7-4 to Sioux Falls, Missouri Western got Bagley Trotter win No. 500 in nine innings on a walk-off double by
Paige Shifflett. Bagley Trotter's milestone win wasn't the only big moment of the day,
Katie Klosterman also homered three times, including two solo shots in the Griffons' loss to Sioux Falls.
Game 2: MWSU 4, McKendree 3 (9 innings)Shifflett's double in the bottom of the ninth ended a nearly four-inning stalemate and gave coach Trotter the milestone victory.
Rebekah Mueller led off the ninth with a fly out to left.
Morgan Rathmann then singled and advanced to second on a ground out to first by
Shelbie Atwell. That set up Shifflett's double to win it.
Shyanne Saladino buckled down in extra innings, facing the minimum and picking up four strikeouts and forcing two infield pop ups in the two extra innings.
Saladino got the win and improved to 4-3 on the year after going all nine innings and allowing three runs on seven hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks. Klosterman hit her third home run of the day in the second that put Missouri Western up 2-0.
Sydney Washington made it 3-0 in the third with an RBI single, but McKendree score the next three, one in the fourth and two in the fifth.
Game 1: Sioux Falls 7, MWSU 4Missouri Western couldn't hold on to a 3-0 lead after five innings, allowing five Sioux Falls runs in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh.
Taylor Hamilton and Klosterman drove in the first three runs with Hamilton's sacrifice fly in the first and an RBI double in the fifth. In between, Klosterman hit the first of her home runs in the fourth.
Janie Smith allowed an RBI double and a grand slam in the sixth to put the Griffons down 5-3. Klosterman pulled Missouri Western within one in the sixth with her second home run, but Sioux Falls followed with a two-run homer in the seventh to go up 7-4. Missouri Western managed just one base runner in the bottom of the seventh, when Shifflett reached on a two-out error.
Klosterman finished 2-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Smith fell to 6-3 on the year. She gave up all seven runs on eight hits, pitching all seven innings.
Missouri Western is 10-6 on the season after the 1-1 day. The Griffons will open the home portion of their schedule with an MIAA doubleheader this weekend against Northeastern State on Friday, March 4.
