By STEVE CARPENTER - Hutchinson CC Sports Information
COLBY – Freshman Madison Grimes had six combined hits on Saturday, but the Hutchinson Community College softball team continued to struggle and dropped a Jayhawk Conference doubleheader on Saturday at Colby.
Hutchinson fell 7-1 in the opening game and 16-7 in Game 2. The Blue Dragons drop to 12-12 overall and 4-6 in the Jayhawk East. The Blue Dragons have lost six games in a row.
GAME 1 RECAP
The Blue Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Grimes doubled in Lexi Williams.
Grimes went 2 for 4 in Game 1 with a double and RBI. Williams was 1 for 4, but reached base three times and stole three bases.
Colby tied the game at 1 in the fourth with an unearned run and took a 3-1 lead in the fifth on back-to-back two-out home runs from Laney Shireman and Allison Westbrook. The Trojans broke the game open with four runs in the sixth.
Jordan Galliher (5-2) started and took the loss in the pitching circle. Galliher worked 5 2-3 innings. She struck out five and allowed eight eights, six runs and walked three.
Colby out-hit Hutchinson 10-7. Carley Sterneker was 2 for 3 in Game 1 with a double. Haley Miller and Bailey Pennycuff had Hutchinson's other hits.
GAME 2 RECAP
Grimes was a perfect 4 for 4 with a double and four RBIs to lead Hutchinson's 13-hit attack. Grimes had RBI singles in both the third and fourth innings and ripped a two-run double in the top of the sixth.
Grimes' fourth-inning RBI single capped a three-run inning and tied the game at 5-all after the Blue Dragons trailed 5-1.
Colby pounded out 18 hits the second game. After Hutchinson tied the game at 5-all, the Trojans immediately grabbed the lead back on Megan Kenney three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth. Colby reached the eight-run mercy rule in the sixth on a Jennifer Williams grand slam to make it 16-7. Kennedy and Williams had six RBIs each.
Williams went 2 for 4 and stole her 29th base of the season, which ties her own Blue Dragon single-season stolen base record which she set in 24 games last season. Williams' 29th stolen base this season came in Game 24 for the Blue Dragons.
Miller and Pennycuff both had two hits each.
Mequela Guajardo (2-4) pitched 2 1-3 innings out of the bullpen and suffered the loss.
The Blue Dragons travel to Ottawa University on Wednesday to take on the Braves' JV team in Ottawa.