March 7, 2015 Box Score
NORMAN, Okla. - The Missouri State softball team (8-9) fell in a pair of walk-off losses to open the Courtyard Marriott Tournament in Norman, Okla., on Saturday. MSU dropped a 2-1 game to Samford (15-5) to open the day and lost 10-0 in five innings to No. 5/6 Oklahoma (15-3). The defeat to the Sooners was the third perfect game thrown against MSU in program history and the first since 1992.
Freshman Chelsea Thomas again was the offensive leader for Missouri State. She had two hits and drove in a run for the Bears on Saturday.
Senior Chelsea Jones pitched five innings to begin the game against Samford. She scattered five hits and gave up just a single unearned run.
Sophomore Erin Struemph appeared in both games in the circle for MSU. She fired 1.1 innings against the Bulldogs, striking out two. She got the start in game two against OU and picked up a strikeout to extend her streak to 13-straight appearances to begin the season with at least one strikeout.
Game 1 - Missouri State 1, Samford 2
Redshirt sophomore Mary Stephens drew a one-out walk in the top of the first inning for the Bears. It was her team-leading 13th walk of the season, but MSU was unable to get her home in the inning.
Molly Fields began the Bears' third inning with a solid single to right field. Pinch runner Olivia Roark advanced all the way to third before the inning concluded.
Samford pushed home an unearned run in the bottom of the inning to move ahead 1-0.
MSU looked to draw even in the fourth inning. Chelsea Thomas singled to center with one away. Two batters later, Erin Duewel singled to right-center, but both runners were left in scoring position to end the inning.
Rebecca McPherson doubled off the top of the centerfield fence with one down in the sixth. Thomas drove her home with a single to right-center to tie the game.
The game remained knotted until the bottom of the seventh. The Bulldogs began the inning with consecutive hits to put runners on the corners with no outs. A sacrifice fly to deep left field ended the game as MSU fell 2-1.
Game 2 - Missouri State 0, #5/6 Oklahoma 10 (5)
Struemph retired the first two Sooners of the game before a solo home run put OU ahead. A leadoff home run turned into a two-run rally for the Sooners in the second inning.
In the Bears' third inning, junior Braxton Coil worked a 12-pitch at-bat after an 0-2 count to begin the plate appearance. But her sharp groundout to third ended the at-bat.
The Sooners put four runs on the board in the third inning after reliever Jessie Van Es appeared to ready to wiggle out of trouble. Three of the OU runs were unearned in the frame.
Van Es settled in to keep the Sooners off the board in the fourth.
Chelsea Jones appeared to break up another no-hitter when she flew to the gap in left-center in the fifth. But OU's left fielder made a nice running catch going away to snag the hit from Jones.
Van Es again looked to get through the fifth unscathed and extend the game. However, Oklahoma's Lauren Chamberlain had other thoughts belting a three-run walk-off home run to end the game in five innings.
The Bears will continue action at the Courtyard Marriott Tournament on Sunday when MSU plays Samford at 10:00 a.m. and host Oklahoma at 2:30 p.m. Missouri State will begin an eight-game home stand on Tuesday beginning with a 5:00 p.m. game versus Central Arkansas at Killian Stadium.
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