The Monmouth College softball team were swept in a non-conference double header by No. 22 Coe College on Wednesday. The Scots (8-14) lead early in game pne but eventually lost to Coe (21-3) 5-3 and 4-1.
Monmouth got things going right away as Calista Warmowski (Spring Grove, Illinois) led off with a triple. With two on and one out, MyKenzie Kloess (Dupo, Illinois) reached on a sacrifice bunt as Warmowski scored. Two batters later an error scored Madelyn Belivlle (Rushville, Illinois) for a 2-0 Scots lead.
The Scots added on in the third. Lillian Hucke (Aledo, Illinois) singled with one out and moved to third on a couple wild pitches as Olivia Riddley (Chatham, Illinois) walked. Hucke came around to score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of pitcher Abby Leber (Tremont, Illinois).
Coe scored two off Leber in the third inning, both unearned. They tied the game in the fifth with another unearned run before Leber got out of the inning with the go-ahead run on second base. The Kohawks took the lead in the sixth with a solo homer and added an insurance run later in the inning after a Monmouth error.
Leber (5-6) allowed five runs, one earned, on eight hits over six innings in the complete game loss. She struck out five and didn’t issue a walk..
GAME TWO
In the second game the Scots put runners on second and third with no outs in the first but didn’t score. Coe scored after two batters on a bunt single and a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Coe added on with two runs in the third against Lizzie Durfee (Arlington, Washington). A single, walk and steal set the stage before a sac fly and single scored two runs.
Kendall Lewis (Cambridge, Illinois) led off the fifth inning with a solo homer to get the Scots on the board. The homer is her team-leading third of the season but represented the lone run of game two. Coe added a fourth run in the sixth with two hits and a RBI groundout.
Durfee (1-8) took the loss in a complete game outing. She allowed four runs, three earned, on five hits while walking one and striking out three.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Leber has thrown four straight complete games and has 23 in her career, six on the season. In those four starts he has allowed two earned runs in 27 innings for a 0.67 ERA while striking out 25 and not issuing a walk. She hasn’t walked a batter in 27 innings. Leber moved into a tie for 19th on the single-season strikeouts list, matching her total of 61 from the COVID shortened 2021 season. She joins Sarah Christensen (2007-09) and Liz Hippen (2015-18) as the only pitchers to have three seasons with at least 60 strikeouts. Warmowski and Hucke had Monmouth’s hits in the opener. Warmowski has a eight-game hit streak and had three hits on the day. Leber had a three-game RBI streak after the first game and she has reached base in all four games in which she’s hit this season. Lewis has six homers in her career, tied for 10th on the Scots career list. Monmouth is in the midst of a 10-game road trip with a 2-4 record so far. Coe is the second ranked team the Scots have faced in 2023. Monmouth lost to No. 15 Rowan (then No. 24) in extra-innings on March 10 in Florida. This was the first meeting against Coe since 2006 and just the second time the teams have met since 1997. The Scots will play a non-conference DH at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday. The games were originally scheduled for March 26 but were canceled due to cold weather. The DH starts at 1 p.m.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
