Lady Spartans Lose Two at Home, Earn Road Sweep

The M State Fergus Falls Lady Spartans continued their busy schedule with a home doubleheader Monday and two on the road Tuesday. Monday the Lady Spartans played the 8th ranked team in the nation and lost game one 19-6 and dropped the nightcap 12-0. Tuesday, the Lady Spartans travelled to Willmar to play the Ridgewater College Warriors, winning game one 16-9 and taking game two 12-4.

St. Cloud opened an early 9-0 lead before the Lady Spartans rallied behind an RBI single by MacKenna Kehoe and a two run double by Lydia Baker to make the score 9-3. St. Cloud added a couple runs in the fifth for a 11-3 lead, but Mackenzie Foss launched a three-run home run to left center to cut the lead to 11-6. That's as close as the Lady Spartans would get as the heavy hitting St. Cloud team took advantage of some fielding mistakes and put up 8 runs in the top of the sixth for the 19-6 win.

In game two, the Lady Spartans struggled at the plate and never mounted much of a threat and lost 12-0.

The Lady Spartans brought their hitting shoes to Willmar and rode strong pitching from Maddi Shjerve in game one and Maddy Missling in game two for a big road sweep. The Lady Spartans jumped to an early 5-0 lead after two innings as Lydia Baker picked up four RBI's with two doubles and Kehoe added and RBI single. The Lady Spartans added four more runs in the fourth inning as the picked up RBI's from Abby Tysdal, Hannah Scherr, Carly Fuentes an Kehoe and Baker each added run scoring hits for 10-0 lead.

Ridgewater has a team that can hit the ball and they took advantage of a couple Lady Spartans errors to score five in the fourth and cut the lead to 9-5. The Lady Spartans kept slugging and added three in the sixth and three in the seventh to seal the deal and get the 16-9 win. Baker had six runs batted in and Kehoe four to lead the Lady Spartans. Maddi Shjerve pitched the complete game for the win.

Game two was a hard fought contest until the Lady Spartans put it away late. Pitcher Maddy Missling helped her cause with a first inning double to plate two. Tysdal doubled in a run in the third and the score was tied 4-4 after four innings. The Lady Spartans took the lead for good in the sixth on RBI base hits by Fuentes and Kehoe for a 6-4 lead. Missling set the Warriors down in order in the bottom of the sixth and the Lady Spartans blew the game open with six runs in the top of the seventh. The big hit was a three run triple by Missling for the 12-4 lead. Missling was very efficient in the bottom of the seventh and set the side down in order.

Missling retired the last 11 Ridgewater batters she faced and had four runs batted in the 12-4 Lady Spartan win.

The Lady Spartans also did some little things very well against Ridgewater. One of the highlights of the day was four bunt base hits by Emma Bartels that ignited rallies and the team had many quality two out at bats that led to runs.

The Lady Spartans close out their home season Thursday with a doubleheader against Anoka Ramsey.