Joshua Harrison-Williams, Staff Writer for The MSU Spokesman
Morgan State University’s softball team won all three games in their home series at Lois T. Murray Field on April 21 to make them the number one team in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) . Their regular season now nears its end.
The Lady Bears won 3-2, 2-0, and 2-1 stifling the Howard Bison softball team that was number 6 in the nation in batting average with the number one batter in the country, sophomore outfielder Maryn Jordan.
Head coach Larry Hineline said, “They’re a good team. They have like the fifth best batting average in the country. Our pitchers had a task ahead of them and they executed really well.”
In game two, both teams held each other runless until the bottom of the fifth inning where freshman outfielder Amber Rivas singled up the middle, but an errand throw from the Bison’s outfield allowed senior shortstop Ky’Anah Lake to score.
From there, freshman pitcher Ellie Bostedt would hit a double to right center field, scoring Rivas to put the Lady Bears up two runs.
In the top of the seventh inning, Howard had freshman Bria Finley on second base with sophomore catcher Kelyse Stewart up to bat looking to tie the game back up. Stewart popped up to Rivas who was in right field to make the game-ending throw to second base that would give the Lady Bears the series win.
After going up by two runs early in game three, Howard would put up their first run of the game as freshman catcher Merci Hart would score off Amelia Weber’s double to make the score 1-2 as the Bison looked to prevent a sweep.
It was at that momentHineline switched a pitcher out and brought in senior relief pitcher Emily Raubuch to get the final two outs. After a forced groundout from Howard’s sophomore Kelsie Jarrett, Raubuch had one out left.
With Weber on third base and Jones up to bat, both Raubuch and Jones were fighting tirelessly to remain in the game . That was until Jones sent one screaming into the outfield right into the outstretched arms of Rivas for the final out as the Lady Bears completed the sweep of theBison.
“Howard’s really aggressive swinging, so I knew that I could throw balls and get away with it. I knew there were some that I was going to throw 10 feet over their head. They were going to foul off but I knew if I kept trying there was going to be one that gets by them, or one they just can’t hit and I knew my defense would have my back on those occasions,” Raubuch said.
This series was a matchup of the number one batters and number one pitchers in the MEAC. As each game reached its end, Howard had to dig deep, making 12 total batting changes while Morgan only had to bring in one reliever with senior Tori Fletcher pitching a total of 12.2 innings.
Fletcher said, “It’s all about the mental side of it. They can’t get in your head, especially a team like Howard. They are a very mental team and they will try to get in your head and we caught them lacking this weekend. They were low for points in the game and we just capitalized on their low energy.”
The Lady Bears return to the field April 24 as they travel to George Washington University to take on the Revolutionaries. To end their season, the team will return home April 27 and April 28 to take on Coppin State University, their cross-town rivals in what will ultimately decide who wins the MEAC regular season title.
