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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The Washburn University softball team fell 6-0 in Saturday's opener to No. 8-ranked Rogers State before coming back in the second game to pick up a 4-1 win over the Hillcats.
The Washburn Ichabods were limited to three hits in the first game as Danielle Schlader came up with two of those.
Rogers State scored runs in each inning but the fourth as the Hillcats improved to 38-8 in the first game.
Schlader had hits in the second and the fourth innings and Jaden LaBarge had the third and final hit for the Ichabods in the seventh.
Sheyenne Creek took the pitching loss, falling to 5-2 on the season. Creek threw 132 pitches and struck out three.
After the Hillcats took a 1-0 second-game lead on their first at-bat on an unearned run, the Ichabods came back with a run of their own to tie the score in the top of the second.
Shawnee Heights product Jaycee Ginter started the inning with a single and then came around to score on a double down the line by Hadley Kerschen.
In the third, the Ichabods (35-13 overall, 14-10 MIAA) took a 2-1 lead when Schlader picked up an RBI single scoring former Silver Lake standout Ellington Hogle, who singled to lead off the inning.
Washburn pushed its lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning, taking advantage of a Hillcat miscue.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Washburn University starter Casey Stewardfinished his six-inning outing without allowing a hit and striking out 10 Rogers State hitters while the Ichabod offense put up seven runs in the opening inning on the way to a 9-3 MIAA victory on Saturday afternoon at Falley Field.
Washburn clinched the series win with Saturday's victory and will go for the sweep in its final home game of the regular season at 1 p.m. Sunday. The six Ichabod seniors will be recognized on the field 15 minutes prior to the first pitch.
Trying put itself in position for a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Ichabods (27-18 overall, 19-10 MIAA) have now won six of their last eight games.
"We go out and get two this weekend so far, so we're starting to get back to playing good baseball and finding a way to pitch it and taking care of opportunities,'' Ichabod coach Harley Douglas said. "This was definitely a week (five games on the week) that we needed to get some practice, get some opportunities, get some things that we could iron out and kind of get us moving forward.''
Washburn went through the batting order and then some in the first inning as the Ichabods scored seven runs on five hits and received four free bases.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The Washburn Ichabod softball team worked overtime in each game on Friday against Northeastern State, falling 4-3 in the opener in eight innings before taking the nightcap 7-5 in 11 innings.
Washburn returns to action on Saturday at Rogers State.
A walk-off home run by the RiverHawks pushed NSU to a 4-3 win in the opener in eight innings.
The RiverHawks took the early lead scoring one in the bottom of the second before Washburn (34-12, 13-9 MIAA) knotted the score in the fourth.
In the fourth, Paige Robbins' grounded out scoring Jaycee Ginter, who reached on a fielder's choice.
Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth when the RiverHawks hit a two-run homer to take a 3-1 lead, but the advantage was short-lived as the Ichabods came back with two of their own, tying the score at 3-3 in their at bat in the seventh inning.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Caden Bressler capped off Washburn's run-rule victory on Friday afternoon with a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh as the Ichabods rolled to a 12-1 decision over Rogers State in the series opener.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Falley Field.
After getting out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the second, Washburn (26-18 overall, 18-10 MIAA) got on the board in the home half of the frame.
Easton Bruce and Bressler drew back-to-back walks and both moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Shane Morrow worked the third straight walk to load the bases with one out.
Blake Scott brought the first run in on a sacrifice fly. Then, on a 1-1 pitch, Cale Savage's popup bounced out of the second baseman's glove and two runs scored on the play to make it 3-0 in favor of Washburn.
In the bottom of the third with two outs, Trey Adams was issued a free pass with a walk and Bruce followed that up with a first pitch no-doubt home run to right field to extend the Ichabod lead to 5-0.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Before Topeka High's non-league 3-2 overtime soccer loss to Free State the Trojans were already without four players with being absent or injured and by the time they left Hummer Sports Park on Friday night, three more players got significantly banged up.
Despite playing with a true 11 players, Topeka High (5-4-0) fell just short of overcoming all of its obstacles against a Free State squad hungry to snap its own nine-game losing streak and winless season.
But even with the apparent dark cloud hanging above the Trojans' heads, they never gave up. Although disappointed in the loss, Topeka High coach Derek Snook was pleased with what he saw from players that aren't regularly on the varsity field.
"First and foremost, I was proud of the effort," Snook said. "We came into the game being down three or four more players already due to injury or being gone. We had an injury to one of our tweeners in the junior varsity game that gets time. We had another injury in the first half with a possible concussion, so I'm down to playing junior varsity players that don't play that often.
"But the effort was fantastic. Quite honestly, I thought we had some golden opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net. We missed a pass here and didn't make a good run on one there, but the effort was there. I thought we did some good things defensively as well. We had our opportunities, but it just didn't work out."