Royals Struggle on the Road in Dawson

April 16 & 17, 2016 – Glendive, MT

The Lake Region State College Royals softball team had four games this weekend against Dawson Community College (DCC) in some cold and windy conditions. Dawson swept the four game series by the scores of 4 to 26, 7 to 11, 6 to 14, and 2 to 10.

In game one, early jitters contributed to 4 errors in the first two innings enabling DCC to jump out to a quick 9-0 lead. In the third, it didn't get any better. DCC sent 20 batters to the plate scoring 16 runs. The bright spot for the Royals was the 5^th inning when they scored 4 runs from 4 hits. Kiahna Chumola hit her first college career homerun scoring Hanna Gary and Jaimie Shaw who singled earlier. For the game, Dawson had 21 hits off of pitchers Mackenzie Sansom and Kassi Jones, 4 of them were homeruns and 4 were doubles. The Royals had 8 hits, one double by Sansom to go along with the homerun from Chumola off of pitcher Taylor Allman and committed 6 errors.

Game two saw a good pitching performance from Alaina McKinnon and quick start with the bats for the Royals. In the first, off of 4 consecutive hits, a double by Courtney Fines, single by Emma Gary, homerun by Hanna Gary, and a double by Sansom, the Royals jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The Royals took a 7-5 leading into the 5^th inning but GCC scored 5 to take the lead for good. For the game, Dawson had 13 hits, 3 of them were homeruns, where Lake Region had 11 hits off of Dawson's pitcher Sidney Bushard. Alaina McKinnon finished the game giving up 11 runs, 8 earned runs, and 3 strikeouts facing 34 batters and walking only one.

Sunday's first game saw Lake Regions burst to a 6-0 lead in the top of the first scoring all 6 runs with 2 outs off of pitcher Sidney Bushard. Dawson committed 3 errors in the inning but the big blow came from Alaina McKinnon's bat as she blasted a 3 run homer over the left-center fence. But in the bottom of the first, GCC scored 2 after Rachael Dillon hit her 5^th homerun of weekend. The Royals failed to score again and saw Dawson score 4 in the third, 2 in the fourth, 2 in the fifth, and 4 in the sixth to end the game by the 8 run rule. Hannah Hextall pitched a solid game and was relieved by Mackenzie Sansom. Hextall gave up 7 hits, 12 runs, 8 earned runs, 2 strikeouts, with 2 homeruns in 5 innings. Sansom pitched 1 inning giving up 2 hits, 2 earned runs, and struck out one. Kristen Hutto went 2 for 2, scored a run, and had 1 RBI for the game. Emma Gary, Sansom, and Jaimie Shaw each had a single.

In the final game, the Royals jumped out to another lead early after Emma Gary singled and Mackenzie Sansom launched a homerun over the right field fence to go up by two. But again Dawson responded when Rachael Dillon hit her 6^th homerun of the series cutting the lead to one. The two runs were all the Royals could manage against pitcher Taylor Allman. Dawson scored 3 in the second, 2 in the third, 3 in the fourth, and 1 in the fifth to end the game 10-2. Hanna Gary pitched the 4 innings for the Royals giving up 11 hits, 10 runs, 8 earned runs, 1 walk, and 3 homeruns.

Go Royals!