ST. GEORGE, Utah – Spurred by a dominant performance from the top four hitters in its lineup, MSU Denver rolled to a pair of softball victories on Thursday at the Dixie State Courtyard Classic.
No. 2 hitter
Megan Sansburn hit a two-run, first-inning homer for the second time this season to kick-start a 7-1 victory over St. Mary's (Texas) in the opener, and then cleanup hitter
Laney Sheppard upped her RBI total to 16 in seven games as she drove in three runs in a 10-3 win over Concordia-Portland (Ore.) in the second game.
The top four hitters were a combined 13-for-25 (.520) with 10 runs and 13 RBIs.
"The top of our lineup sparked us from the get-go today," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach
Annie Van Wetzinga said. "Rebecca (Gonzales) started us with the base bit up the middle and then Megan jumped on her pitch for the two-run home run. You can't write it up much better than that. When your offense gets you on top to start the game, everyone can play much more relaxed – especially our pitchers.
"Hitting can definitely be contagious and after that fast start, we had people up and down the lineup coming up with big hits."
Meanwhile
Darby McGhee pitched a five-hit complete game against St. Mary's, and
Kayla Banks improved to 3-0 by working the first six innings and allowing three runs to Concordia, an NCAA Division II tournament team in 2019 that is picked to finish third in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
"Both starting pitchers did a really nice job," Van Wetzinga said. "We had some rough moments last weekend with pitching and defense, so it was nice to see our pitchers attack hitters and be much more efficient with their pitch count. They also produced a lot more ground balls, which is something wanted to focus on from last weekend."
Gonzales went 2-for-5 and scored five runs, Sansburn went 3-for-6 with five runs and four RBIs, freshman
Olivia Dampier was 4-for-7 with four RBIs and Sheppard was 4-for-7 with five RBIs on the day.
Meanwhile, lower in the order, freshman shortstop
Haley Doughty was 3-for-7 with a run batted in, and
JJ Sheppard was 3-for-6.
MSU Denver (5-2) is back in action Friday with games against Central Washington at 3 p.m. and Western Washington at 5:30 p.m.
"Our outfield is doing an awesome job of covering ground and making plays on some well-hit balls," Van Wetzinga said. "I'm very happy and proud of the way we are playing as a unit out there."
Against St. Mary's, Gonzales started the game with a single before Sansburn's homer. The Roadrunners added four more in the second inning on an RBI triple by
Kamryn Leoffler, a run-scoring groundout by Damiper, and a two-run single by
Laney Sheppard.
At 6-0 and with McGhee on the mound, the game was essentially over. She earned her 39
th career victory while recording five strikeouts.
Against Concordia,
Laney Sheppard's first-inning RBI single put the Roadrunners on top, and they made it 2-0 on Dampier's RBI single in the third.
Then MSU Denver broke loose with four in the fourth and four more in the sixth.
A sacrifice fly by McGhee, a two-run double by Sansburn and an RBI double by Dampier accounted for the fourth-inning runs.
In the sixth, Dampier had a sacrifice fly,
Laney Sheppard added a two-run single, and Doughty capped it off with an RBI single.
"What was nice, outside of Megan's home run, is that we produced with singles and doubles," Van Wetzinga said. "It's nice to see our offense not just have the ability to score runs via the home run, but to also have the ability to string hits together and use our speed on the bases to create offense."
