Murray State squeezes by, staves off elimination
May 24—SPARTANBURG, S.C. — It was far from pretty as offensive struggles continued for the Murray State Lady Aggies Wednesday night, but they staved off elimination with a 2-1 win over Des Moines Area Community College in the NJCAA Division II Softball World Series.
Now 57-6 on the season, the Lady Aggies were right back on the field trying to stay alive Thursday, facing 18th-seeded St. Louis Community College for the first of what they hope to be two more elimination contests. Des Moines ended the season with a 50-11 record.
Things looked a bit bleak for the Murray State chances once again through five stanzas as Coach Aaron Mullens' club trailed 1-0 from nearly the start of the game. Each time, however, they got a base runner they could never produce a run. Until the sixth inning.
Haili Igou's leadoff double was just the fifth of the game for the Lady Aggies, but seemingly provided the spark that they needed. Two consecutive outs squelched some of that momentum before Courtney Grey drew a walk.
Mullens went to the bench with pinch hitter Bree Butler, who smacked a hard ground ball to shortstop and the throw to first was off the mark to allow both runners to score.
Back in the pitching circle trying to close with the lead for the second time in a matter of hours, Bradi Harman delivered with three straight outs following a leadoff walk to keep the Murray State season alive.
Dara Hamlin got the pitching start and worked in and out of trouble for four innings, but made the key pitches when she had to while limiting the Lady Bears to one unearned run on five hits. Harman fired the final scoreless three stanzas and notched the victory, yielding just one hit with three strikeouts.
Kennedy Lord chipped in a double with Karsyn York, Harman and Grey also contributing singles.
