The Allen County softball team dropped their home conference openers Wednesday afternoon.
The Lady Devils faced Highland Community College and fell 21-10 in the first game and 14-3 in the second game. The losses move Allen County to 4-10 and 0-2 in Jayhawk Conference play.
The Lady Devils took an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning in game one but a seven-run second inning gave the Lady Scotties a lead they wouldn’t lose.
Highland scored another run in the third and six more in the fourth which secured the run-rule after the fifth inning.
Freshman catcher Sam Greninger scored the only three runs of the game on a three-run home run in the first.
Freshman starter Abby Walker earned the loss, giving up 10 runs (five earned) on 12 hits and a walk with one home run.
In game two, the Lady Devils started things off on a good note with a three-run first quarter. Highland scored nine runs in the top of the second and third inning to go up six but Allen County cut that down to three with a three-run bottom of the third.
The Lady Devils got the deficit down to just one in the bottom of fourth with two runs scored on two singles.
Allen County held tight for one more inning before the wheels came off the wagon. In the top of the sixth, the Scotties scored 12 runs to give them a 21-8 lead. The Lady Devils brought home a final two runs in the bottom of the sixth but it wouldn’t be enough to trigger the run-rule after the sixth inning ended.
In the end, only eight of Highlands 21 runs were earned. The Lady Devils committed five errors in the game.
Center fielder Winter Henry had four hits in the contest and freshman left fielder Chelsey Henry, right fielder Ashlie Shields and Walker each drove in two runs on two hits.
Sophomore starter Courtney Gard only went 1.2 innings giving up five runs (one earned) on five hits but reliever sophomore Dela Boyd earned the loss with nine runs on nine hits and two walks in 3.1 innings pitched.
The Lady Devils will travel to Crowder College on Friday before traveling to Joplin on Saturday to play Murray State and Kirkwood Community College.
Lady Devils drop conference openers to Highland
