As March approaches, the baseball and softball fields will be more and more active as the high schools spring into action. The Lady Hornets, on the other hand, are well underway this season and completed another early-season tournament. They competed in the Washburn Tournament and continued to have a good start to the year, going 4-1 at the tournament and leaving with a 10-5 overall record.
The Lady Hornets began the tournament against Minnesota State Mankato and sent freshman Hannah Butterbaugh to the circle. She set the tone in the top of the first inning as she struck out the side to start the game. Then, on the Lady Hornets’ side of the frame, they got to work as senior Taryn Burkhardt singled to open the bottom of the inning, then junior Brooke Flewelling slammed a two-run home run to give them a 2-0 lead early.
That two-run shot would be the game-winning one as Butterbaugh shut down the Minnesota State Mankato offense for six innings, and the Lady Hornet offense added two more runs for insurance. Butterbaugh finished the game allowing a run on three hits, no walks, and nine strikeouts for her fourth win on the year.
“Mankato is a great team, and we’ve played them multiple times in the last couple of years, and we knew it would be a tough battle. It is really important to come out in this first game strong,” Head Coach Megan Hill said. “We worked hard the last two weeks on being selective at the plate, swinging at our pitch, and squaring balls up.”
She adds that the early runs helped ease Butterbaugh into the game and let her pitch with less tension. The Lady Hornets have had their fair share of close affairs already this season, and Hill explains that she is proud of her team’s resiliency early this season.
The Lady Hornets then faced another Minnesota school in Minnesota-Crookston, and it didn’t start ideally. The Lady Hornets started the scoring in the top of the first as Burkhardt scored after stealing a couple of bases to make it 3-1. Junior Morgan Tomlinson took the circle for the Lady Hornets and gave up three first-inning runs to start the day.
Tomlinson settled in after the first inning and finished three innings of work before turning the ball over to the Lady Hornet bullpen. With the game tied at three, the Lady Hornets scored a run in each of the first three innings, and the bullpen shut down Minnesota-Crookston the rest of the way. Flewelling and junior Avery Brewer sealed the game in the fifth inning, hitting back-to-back solo home runs to make it 5-3 en route to a Lady Hornets win.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Lady Hornets faced Wayne State in what would be the only loss of the tournament for them. Freshman Addison Callaway started the scoring in the third inning after singling and scoring on an error. Wayne State tied the game in the fifth inning, then the teams traded scoreless frames until the tenth inning, where Wayne State hit a walk-off single off Butterbaugh to win 2-1. It was a pitchers’ duel that saw the Lady Hornets have three solid outings from junior Izzy Sloan, sophomore Chloe Wilson, and Butterbaugh, but the offense couldn’t get going against Wayne State’s pitching.
On Sunday, the Lady Hornets closed out the tournament with another doubleheader, starting against Drury. Butterbaugh got the start and continued her great play over the weekend, going five scoreless innings, only allowing two hits and a walk. The Lady Hornets’ offense got going in the third inning as Flewelling and sophomore Sydney Wagner hit back-to-back doubles to give them a 3-0 lead, then the floodgates opened.
The Lady Hornets added three more runs in the fifth inning, another in the sixth inning, and finally four more in the seventh inning to beat Drury 11-0. Headlining the offense was a 4-for-4 two-RBI day for sophomore Kinsley Perine, while Wagner and junior Ally Miller drove in two runs of their own. Butterbaugh got her sixth win of the season as the Lady Hornet pitching earned a shutout.
To close out the tournament, the Lady Hornets faced Rockhurst, and it would be another pitchers’ duel. The tandem of Wilson and Tomlinson would only allow one run in their seven combined innings of work, while the Lady Hornet’s offense started slowly. Rockhurst opened the scoring in the third, driving in one run on a single. After a couple more shutout innings for both teams, the Lady Hornets got on the board in the sixth inning as Flewelling hit a solo home run to tie the game late at one.
After Tomlinson got out of the seventh inning unscathed, the Lady Hornets got to work as the first two batters reached base as Callaway came up to the plate. She would walk off the game with an RBI single to give the Lady Hornets a 2-1 victory to end the tournament. Tomlinson earned her first win of the season after three and two-thirds scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
The Lady Hornets finish with a 4-1 record at the tournament and reach the ten-win mark overall at 10-5. They will have another tournament starting up this upcoming weekend, starting on Feb. 28 against Maryville to start the Midwest College Classic, where the Lady Hornets will look to continue a strong start to the season.