CONWAY, Ark. – The Central Arkansas softball team dropped its first ASUN series of the season, falling in a doubleheader against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday. The Bears continually improved over the course of the weekend, but couldn't find enough to overcome the Colonels.
The losses drop the Bears to 8-19 on the year with an 0-3 start to conference play.
Renee Christian tallied three hits on the day, but the Bears stranded runner after runner, costing them a pair of games at home.
Game One: Central Arkansas – 1, Eastern Kentucky – 6
After giving up a sacrifice fly in the first inning, Central Arkansas went right to work, evening the score in the second.
Bailie Runner struck out the last two batters of the top of the second to give a jolt of energy to the Bears, who carried it with them to the plate.
Colleen Bare opened the inning with a walk, then moved to third after a single by Christian and a walk by
McKayla Betts. A fielder's choice would record the first out of the inning, but keep the bases loaded. The speed of Christian proved to be a bigger gamble than the Colonels were comfortable with, because instead of trying her at the plate, they opted to take a runner at first, allowing the speedy freshman to get home and even the score.
A five-run fourth inning separated the scores again, putting EKU back in the driver's seat. Central Arkansas would put runners on in the fourth, fifth and seventh, but never advanced further than second base.
Game Two: Central Arkansas – 2, Eastern Kentucky – 5
The Bears held off EKU until the second inning before giving up a two-run home run to start the scoring.
Lilly Hood cut into the lead with the first at bat of the second inning, putting a ball in between two outfielders and causing a collision, which allowed her to sprint all the way around for a run. Three-straight at bats would move
Colleen Bare to third base, but back-to-back outs ended the inning with the Bears trailing by one.
EKU added three in the top of the third, driving in a pair with a triple and a sac fly sending the third batter home. Central Arkansas loaded the bases in the home half of the frame, but couldn't add any runs, hitting into a double-play to end the inning. The Bears would finally score another run in the fifth inning. With two outs,
Morgan Nelson singled to get on board, moving to second on a walk by Hood. Bare singled to the outfield, allowing Nelson to get home for the Bears' second run of the game.
But loading the bases in the sixth inning yielded no runs, and three-up, three-down in the seventh ended the game. Central Arkansas outhit the Colonels 8-5 in the second game, and benefited from two errors, but costly droughts and miscues stranded 12 runners on base.
Central Arkansas is back on the road over the course of the next week, playing Missouri State on Tuesday and Tulsa on Wednesday. First pitch against the Bears in Springfield, Mo., is set for 4 p.m.
