By Connor Gray, Senior Reporter
The Northwestern softball team had a rough spring break as the Lady Rangers went 2-6 during the eight-game stretch.
The Lady Rangers started spring break with a home series against Southern Nazarene on March 10.
The first game of the series started off on the wrong foot for the Lady Rangers, as Southern Nazarene knocked in five runs within the first two innings.
The Lady Rangers were able to get three of those runs back in the bottom of the third to make it 5-3, with a two-run home run from Hannah Howell and a solo home run from Laney Anderson.
Neither team scored again until the sixth when Southern Nazarene put up three more runs to make it 8-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Rangers put up two more runs making it 8-5. The Lady Rangers was unable to put up more runs and lost.
The next two games did not fare much better for the Lady Rangers.
In the doubleheader on March 11, the Lady Rangers were outscored by the Crimson Storm, 11-2, which completed the sweep.
The next set of games took place on March 14 in Weatherford against Southwestern.
The first game was a contested match up as both teams gave it their all.
The Lady Rangers got their first two runs on bases loaded walks. In the bottom of the inning,
Southwestern struck back and got three runs, making it 3-2.
In the third, Southwestern got a two-run homerun to take a 5-2 lead.
Howell hit a solo homerun in the top of fifth to put it within two, but Southwestern got the run back in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-3.
The Lady Rangers fired back in the sixth inning with RBI’s from Abby DeTar and Howell, making the score 6-5.
In the seventh, the Lady Rangers knocked in three runs from Jaci Oakley and Macy Spearman to win, 8-6.
After a shootout in game one, the second game was a lower scoring affair.
The Lady Rangers held Southwestern to one run, while putting up three of them. RBI’s came in the third, fourth and fifth innings from DeTar, Avery Clark and Howell to give Northwestern a 3-1 victory.
The next series was against Arkansas Tech and like with Southern Nazarene it didn’t go as well.
The first game of the Friday doubleheader ended with a 5-1 loss for Northwestern, with the Lady Rangers only run coming in the first inning with an RBI from Anderson.
In the second game, the Lady Rangers got behind early and by the time runs started getting strung together it was too late as they lost, 9-5.
Arkansas Tech finished the sweep on Saturday with a 5-0 victory.
The next series for the Lady Rangers will be in Searcy, Arkansas against Harding with a doubleheader on Friday with the first game starting at 4 p.m. and Saturday’s game at noon.