DENVER – March 10, 2019 – Chadron State College softball split a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference road series at Regis University this weekend, besting the Rangers by scores of 9-7 and 14-5 on Saturday but giving up the two Sunday games by scores of 6-3 and 8-3.
 
The Eagles' bats erupted for 30 hits and 23 runs on Saturday, aided by six Rangers' errors in game one, while CSC's Megan Horn picked up wins in both affairs to advance to 3-2 on the season.
 
Regis took a three-run lead in the first inning of game one, but CSC got those runs back in the third when Ellie Owens hit a triple to drive in two runs, and Bailey Rominger singled in a tying run.
 
The Rangers put across two more runs in the bottom of the third, but CSC answered with a four-run fourth-inning. Bailey Marvel doubled, and a couple more runners reached on fielder's choices. CSC then led 7-5.
 
The score was tied again when Regis's batters hit a single, double, and a triple to bring it to seven apiece in the fifth inning.
 
CSC's Alyssa Geist singled for the winning RBI in the seventh and Haleigh Hoefs added another run on a in the seventh to complete the win.
 
Chadron State poured on 10 runs, in a big third-inning push, to force the run rule in its second game in Denver. The Eagles were a combined 16-for-29 at the plate, getting an eye-popping eight RBI from senior Kayla Michel, who was 4-for-4 and one base away from hitting for the cycle with a pair of doubles and a home run.
 
The Rangers' five runs in that game all crossed in the bottom of the same inning, as freshman Carly Beard's grand slam was one of four base hits her team managed all game. The others to score in the inning reached on three walks and one CSC error.
 
In Sunday's morning game, CSC started things off with a two-RBI double by Owens to go up 2-0 in the first inning. Regis picked up an unearned run on an error by the Eagles, and it remained 2-1 through four and a half innings.
 
Eagles pitcher Horn held the Rangers without a hit through three innings, and she finished the game with eight strikeouts in a complete game.
 
With two outs in the fifth, however, Regis had a go-ahead two-run home run for the 3-2 lead.
 
CSC managed to tie the game at three runs apiece on an Angelica Maples RBI single in the top of the seventh, but Regis freshman Morgan Stradley, with her second dinger of the game, put a three-run shot over the wall to walk off the field up 6-3.
 
The later game on Sunday started off slow for the Eagles' offense. Only one CSC batter reached on a base hit through three and two-thirds innings, and the Regis fielders turned two double plays. Meanwhile the Rangers went up 3-0 in the early innings before Geist, who reached on an error, scored following an Owens single to close to 3-1.
 
A Geist RBI single and an unearned run by Gabby Russell in the fifth added to the Eagles' score, but they were unable to even things up as Regis homered for two runs in the fourth and tacked on three more in the sixth to end the game 8-3 after Chadron State's seventh at-bat.
 
The game was Horn's fourth decision of the weekend, as she started both contests on Sunday and exited the final one in the third inning. She went to 3-4 on the season.
 
Owens and Marvel each finished with an 8-of-15 weekend batting, while Owens added six RBI and three runs scored. Geist led the team with six runs scored while hitting 6-for-17 and recorded two RBI.
 
Megan Horn's sister, freshman Cassidy Horn, came in as a reliever in the second game both days, pitching five and a third innings and striking out four batters while walking only one.
 
CSC's next weekend is scheduled to be a six-game round robin with Adams State and Colorado School of Mines at home, pending weather.