Southeast Missouri State softball's season ends with 4-1 loss to Morehead State

Southeast Missourian

Friday, May 11, 2018

In this April 29 photo, Southeast Missouri State's Mykaela Arellanes takes a lead off third base during a home game.

BEN MATTHEWS

The Southeast Missouri State softball team's offensive malaise continued Thursday, resulting in a season-ending defeat.

The fourth-seeded Redhawks mustered just one run in a 4-1 defeat to No. 8 Morehead State at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama, and were eliminated from the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

It was SEMO's second loss in as many days, after falling to No. 5 SIU Edwardsville in the opening game Wednesday.

Morehead State (28-22) shut out SEMO (33-20) for the first six innings before the Redhawks ended a 12-inning scoreless streak with a run in the top of the seventh.

By that point the Eagles held a comfortable 4-1 lead.

Both offenses struggled early and it was scoreless through four innings. Then in the fifth, MSU broke through, taking advantage of three straight SEMO errors.

Those miscues resulted in two runs for MSU. The Eagles doubled that advantage in the sixth, thanks to a two-run home run by Allison Rager.

In the seventh, SEMO broke the scoreless streak, which stretched back to the second inning of Wednesday's loss to SIUE in the seventh. Mykaela Arellanes drove in Claire Wernig with a two-out single.

But that would be it for SEMO, and its first OVC Tournament appearance since 2015 is now over.

Chelsea McManaway got the complete-game win, scattering four hits and four walks while recording nine strikeouts.

Paige Scruggs lead MSU at the plate, tallying two of the team's five hits.

MSU will face second-seeded Austin Peay at 12:30 p.m. today.

Haley Thogmartin took the loss, giving up three runs on three hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Freshman Rachel Rook pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief, giving up that homer to Rager.

Arellanes and Rachel Anderson accounted for all four of SEMO's hits with two apiece.