One Inning Here and There Costs Royals Softball

Article by Chris Harris, Devils Lake Journal Sports, April 16th, 2019

North Dakota State College of Science didn't scatter a bunch of runs throughout the doubleheader against Lake Region State College Monday evening, just scored them in bunches in one inning here and there to sweep the Royals from Roosevelt Park.

"Both games we played, basically, the same type of game," said Royals head coach Kory Boehmer. "We had just one tough inning in the first game, and we had one tough inning in the second game. You take those away, we get those innings, I think we win them both."

The Royals led Game 1 after the first inning when a Tehani Yamamoto single scored Tyra Robertson. Later in the inning, Sadie Schilling crossed the plate off of a wild pitch to give them the two run advantage.

The Royals maintained the lead until the fourth when the Wildcats' first big inning occurred. With one out, NDSCS' Tyler Peters knocked in Macie Anderson that tied the game at 2-all. Madison Towle's two-run triple, followed by Towle's steal of home which was followed by an RBI single by Salavao Veu that brought in Maddy Sweep and Lake Region's one run advantage became a four run deficit.

The Wildcats scored five runs in the fourth to take the 6-2 lead.

RBI singles by Lexi Davis, who was also walked in, and Schilling in the bottom of the fourth pulled the Royals to within one. However, NDSCS scored two more runs, one in the sixth and one in the seventh, to come away with the 8-5 win.

Schilling went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored to pace the Royals.

NDSCS 9

LRSC 7

The Wildcats (8-15-1) opened Game 2 with a four-run first inning and maintained that margin until late in the contest to finish off the series victory which was a makeup from April 7th and April 11th respectively.

Leading by two, Brooke Harder's 2-run double that scored Julianna Burnette and Macie Anderson gave NDSCS the 4-0 advantage before the first three outs were made.

Lake Region was able to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. After plating two runs in the bottom of the fourth to pull within 5-3, a sacrifice bunt by Mariah Parker scored Robertson and Schilling to make the score 5-apiece. 

But a three-run double by Anderson, part of a four-run sixth inning for the Wildcats, ended Lake Region's hope of splitting.

"We ended battling all the way through. We battled the first game, we battled in the second game. The girls kept playing hard and that's what we try to preach to them and that's what they constantly try to do," Boehmer said.

Schilling went 3 for 4 with three runs scored and Shumway had two hits and scored two runs in Game 2 to lead the Royals, who fell to 11-17 for the season.

Chris Harris can be reached at charris@devilslakejournal.com and on Twitter: @ChrisHarris_DLJ