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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Overland Park, Kan. - The Missouri Southern softball team scored five unanswered runs in game two today to defeat Washburn in an elimination contest of the 2009 MIAA Softball Tournament. The Lions fell 5-3 in extra innings to Missouri Western in the first round and will now play Central Missouri at 11 am Southern (22-35) scored three runs in the top of the first against Western and led 4-1 heading into the bottom of the third, before the Griffons scored two runs to cut the lead to 4-3. Southern had RBI singles from Trish Washburn and Megan Roark in the first with an RBI groundout from Kelli Bax. Western scored another run to tie the game at four in the fifth before the Lions took the lead with a run in the eighth on a home run from Brooke Hurley. But the Griffons tied it in the bottom half of the inning and won the game with an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth. Clute went 3-5 in game one with a double and two runs scored. Bax had two hits and two RBIs. Clute started and went two and a third innings, while Tara Kuykendall pitched the final 4.2 innings. In game two, the Lions scored five unanswered runs after Washburn had gone up 3-0 in the first. After Hurley walked and Lauren Hasty doubled to put runners at second and third, Lauryn Berger singled home both runners to bring the Lions to within one run. Bax homered to lead off the fourth to tie the game at three, and Roark picked up her first long ball of the season with a two run blast in the fifth to score the Lions' go-ahead runs. Clute had another two hits in the game, while Hurley had two hits of her own. Bax and Roark homered in the game. Kuykendall started but was chased after just one third of an inning, however, Clute threw the final 6.2 innings, shutting out the Lady Blues and scattering four hits, while striking out one. The Lions will now face off with Central Missouri tomorrow morning at 11 am in the elimination round of the tournament. |