Ashley's Shutout Highlights Lady Saints Split

Seward freshman Monique Ashley spun the first shutout of what Lady Saints fans hope to be many in her Seward career Saturday afternoon in El Paso as the gals in green took on the McCook Indians, but Seward dropped game two of their split twinbill to El Paso 8-7 to finish their opening weekend 3-1. 

In their first game of the day, Seward took on the McCook Indians.  It didn't take long for the Lady Saints to get on the board as Macy Koontz reached base to begin the game and later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Sydney Epp to put Seward up 1-0. 

Seward had a chance to add to their lead in the 2^nd as they loaded the bases with one out, but a double play ended the threat as they remained in front 1-0. 

Lady Saints starter Monique Ashley worked a quick 1-2-3 bottom of the 2^nd that included a pair of strikeouts to keep Seward in front and it remained a 1-0 game all the way through the 5^th. 

An RBI single from Kristyna Garcia in the 6^th added an insurance run for Seward, but they wouldn't need it as Ashley breezed through the Indian lineup in the 6^th and 7^th to finish off the shutout and give the Lady Saints a 2-0 win

Ashley was locked in front start to finish in the shutout victory, allowing just four hits while striking out seven and not walking a single batter to improve to 2-0.  Seward pounded out 11 hits, getting two hits apiece from Kaitlin Ammermann, Taylor Kathler, Lexi Manyik, and Leena Mortensen.

SEWARD COUNTY/MCCOOK BOX SCORE

The Lady Saints looked well on their way to 4-0 early on against El Paso in the second game of their doubleheader.  Seward got on the board right away on an RBI single from Epp in the 1^st and got a three run bomb from Jullian Atteberry after that to push their lead to 4-0.  After finally recording their first out, Seward was back at it again as Kathler doubled home a run and later scored alongside Manyik on a double from Koontz to make it 7-0 Lady Saints before El Paso even got to hit. 

The Tejanas answered with a two run first of their own to make it 7-2 and scored three more times in the 3^rd to slice the Seward lead to 7-5. 

The Lady Saints offense went missing after the 1^st and El Paso took advantage by plating two more in the 4^th to tie the score at 7. 

Seward went down in order for the third time in four innings in the 5^th and El Paso blasted a solo home run to take their first lead of the game at 8-7. 

Koontz singled to start the Seward 6^th and Epp walked to put two on with one out, but the middle of the Lady Saints lineup couldn't get it done, stranding both runners at innings end to remain down by one 8-7. 

Seward would give it one more go in the 7^th, but couldn't get anything going, as the side was fanned 1-2-3 to hand the Lady Saints their first loss of the year 8-7.

The Lady Saints went ice cold after the hot start, failing to score again after their seven run first.  El Paso outhit Seward 10-9 and each team committed one error.  Koontz finished 2 for 3 with two RBI's and a run scored while Atteberry led Seward with three RBI's on her first inning bomb. Macy Pritchard took the loss in her Seward debut, going 2 1/3, allowing two hits and one run to fall to 0-1 in the year.

SEWARD COUNTY/EL PASO BOX SCORE

The Lady Saints finish the weekend 3-1 with the split. 

Seward will be back in action next weekend in Midland, Texas where they will take part in the Midland College Classic Tournament Friday and Saturday.