By NICK VILLALOBOS
Editor-in-Chief
The Rangers softball team was swept at home against the Savage Storm over the weekend.
Northwestern entered the weekend after losing seven of their first eight games with their most recent win coming against Missouri S&T in the 8-State Classic on Feb. 12.
Southeastern, however, entered winning four of their first 10 games with their latest win coming off of Minnesota State University-Mankato in the UAM DII Softball Classic.
When play got underway at the Alva Recreation Complex Friday, the teams squared off in a double-header.
In game one, Southeastern dominated the Red-and-Black. The Savage Storm jumped on the Rangers pitching early and never let up.
Jalena Arthur, the Rangers starting pitcher in game one, allowed an opening double by Southeastern which led them to an early 1-0 lead. Southeastern then added a second run in the third and a third in the fourth.
The Rangers finally managed to get on the board in the sixth when Ranger Jordan Haya doubled to centerfield allowing teammate Stephanie Couser to come home.
Unfortunately, the Savage Storm had a dominant seventh inning as they earned six more runs, pushing their lead to 9-1 over the Rangers.
The Rangers tried to cut into the lead in the final inning, but Southeastern pitcher Emily Cudd remained solid. Cudd pitched a full seven innings and allowed only four hits.
The end result in game one was 9-1 in favor of the Savage Storm as the Ranger’s Arthur collected her fifth loss of the season in the circle and Cudd earned her four win.
In the second game of the double header on Friday, the Savage Storm continued their offensive domination from game one. In the first two innings, they collected five runs coming by way of a multiple RBI home run, a solo home run and a RBI fly-out.
Then in the fourth inning, Southeastern stretched their lead to 7-0 over the Rangers following another Southeastern home run and a ground-out RBI.
After falling into an early seven run deficit, the Ranger’s bats would get fired up in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Rangers scoring began when Peyton Garrett crossed the plate following a line-out to the in-field by Haya. Then in the sixth, Couser connected for a two-run home run to bring the deficit to four.
Heading into the final inning, Southeastern added another run pushing their total to eight. The Rangers continued to cut into the Savage Storm lead, but it was too little, too late as the best they could do was close to within three of them.
The 8-5 final completed the day one, two game sweep of Northwester and gave the Savage Storm momentum heading into day two of play.
When play continued on day two with game three, the Savage Storm opened up with an early two runs. The Ranger rallied back to tie it at two all in the fourth, but Southeastern fired back out front in the seventh when they collected a two RBI single off a throwing error by Ranger senior, Taylor Watham.
The Rangers sparked a minor comeback in the last at bats of the game, but like in game two, it was too little, too late for them. They managed to close to within two of the Savage Storm, but senior Caitlin Coody could not connect for the clutch last at bat performance, leaving the Rangers with a 3-5 loss.
In the final game of the series, the Rangers managed only two runs against a dominant Savage Storm defense, but it would not be enough to overcome the seven runs by Southeastern.
When it was all said and done in game four, the Rangers 2-7 loss moved them to 1-11 on the season and 0-4 in GAC play.
Next up for the Rangers is a trip to Ada, Okla. to face GAC foe East Central tomorrow at 1 p.m. and then Saturday at noon.