
Hastings College Softball @ Friends Tournament 2024 // HC Bronco Athletics
WICHITA, KANS. – The Hastings College softball team opened the Friends Tournament by going 1-1 by first defeating Bethany 10-3 and then had its comeback effort fall short against MidAmerica Nazarene 7-5 on Friday evening.
The Lady Broncos picked up an early lead over the Swedes as Lexie Mudloff ripped a double over the center fielders head to plate Isabel Tanabe for the 1-0 lead in the first.
Kyleigh Boever shutdown Bethany again in the second inning as the HC bats came to life once again. With two outs Taylor Stuhr picked up a single followed by Nicole Halsey reaching due to an error. Tanabe then picked up a RBI single to center to bring home Stuhr for the 2-0 lead. Following a walk to Sam Skinner, Elana Gerhard singled to right to score Halsey. Then Mudloff reached base due to an error allowing Tanabe to score to make it 4-0.
The Swedes would get a run back in the third, but a Skinner RBI double followed by a 2-run home run by Lauren Schneider made it 7-1 as HC would take the first game of the tournament 10-3.
Gerhard, Mudloff, Schneider, Macie Mays and Stuhr each finished with two hits while Schneider led the way with three RBIs. Hastings finished the game with 12 hits compared to just four for Bethany.
Game two was all MidAmerica Nazarene through three innings as the Pioneers opened a 7-1 lead. But the Lady Broncos would not go down without a fight.
In the fourth Mudloff led the inning off with a single to left and then stole second. She was brought home on the RBI double from Schneider to make it 7-2. Schneider later scored on the Stuhr fielder’s choice as HC was now within four at 7-3.
Schneider then picked up another RBI double in the fifth that allowed Skinner to score to make it 7-4.
The Pioneer lead held into the seventh as things got a bit interesting as Schneider doubled again that brought home Mudloff to make it 7-5. But with two out a strikeout would end the comeback effort as Hastings had to settle for the day one split.
Schneider led the way by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three doubles in game two. Skinner also finished the game by going 3-for-4. Gerhard and Mudloff each had two hits.
Bailey Schmit came in to relieve Angeline Lockhart and worked 5.1 innings giving up just two runs on five hits to go with her two strikeouts.
Hastings is now 4-8 on the year and will be back in action Saturday Mar. 2 and will take on Baker at 10:00 am and then wrap up the Friends tournament with a matchup against Cottey (MO) at 2:30 down in Wichita, KS.