Article by Isabella Montano 

McPherson, Kansas- The Central Christian College Softball team entered a 4-game set Friday and Saturday against the Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies at home.  

The Tigers came home after splitting the series against Wayland Baptist, where they were looking to continue their winning against the Aggies. On Friday's double header, the Tigers, on the first game, lost 5-0 with only getting 5 hits and 1 error, they were not able to put together enough offense on their side. Defensively, the Tigers did not allow them to score till the top of the 3rd inning, where the Aggies scored 3 runs on 3 hits, and scored one more run in the 5th and the 7th inning to close out the first game.  

With no Tiger runs, Madalyn Griffin was the starter, where she went the whole game. Griffin gave up 9 hits, 2 walks, on 5 runs. Her stat line presented a great game going the distance, but the Tigers offense was not able to gain any momentum, getting two hits from Iliana Luna with a single in the 1st inning, and a Destiny Holt double in the 7th inning.  

In the second game of day one, the Tigers offense were able to put their bats together. They earned 2 runs on 6 hits, but this was not enough for the hot bats of the Aggies. Racking up the hits, the Tigers started hot in the bottom of the 4th, where Destiny got the hits started with a single up the middle, and Abby Schleisman earned a single down the right field line. Loaded bases, Paige Major is up to bat, where she reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Destiny Holt. Sara Lynch, the relief pitcher for Chelsie Hirtler, singled up the middle scoring Schleisman, earning an RBI, with all the runs scored were unearned.  

The bats finally came together, where Iliana Luna had a multi-hit game with a singled on a bunt to shortstop, and a double down the left field line. Other notable hitters were pitcher Sara Lynch who earned an RBI, and catcher, Paige Major who earned an RBI also. Hirtler did not get the win this game, where she went 3 innings, allowed 9 hits, 2 walks, and 10 runs. Sara Lynch went in for relief and pitched 2 innings, allowing 5 hits and 3 runs for the Tigers, which the game only lasted 5 innings.  

Saturday was not a great day for softball due to the wind, none the less, the game happened, where the bats were quiet once again; however, the Tigers were able to obtain 3 hits by Abby Schleisman who singled through the right side and stole a base to get the Tigers into scoring position in the bottom of the 5th inning, Miranda Tegtmeier singled to right field, and in the 7th inning, Barrera tripled to right center field, but no runs were scored.  

The Tigers struggled to string together runs with a strong pitching effort from Kayla Voss who pitched a solid 7 innings allowing 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 strike out, and 2 walks. Voss' strong outing is what the Tigers needed to try and steal at least one game from the Aggies, but the game did not go their way.  

With the last game of the series, the game only went 6 innings, where the offense did not score any runs on 6 hits. The Tigers had Sara Lynch on the mound, where she went 5 innings with 4 hits, 4 runs, 4 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Chelsie Hirtler came in for 1 inning, where she gave up 5 hits, 7 runs, and 3 walks. This game did not go the Tigers way, but Camryn Frick went 3 for 3 with 3 singles in the game and a stolen base. Jovita Trevino, Abby Schleisman, and Paige Major were also able to get hits during this game, where they struggled to bring run support for Sara Lynch.  

Coach Quote: "We didn't perform well in any of the three phases and the scores showed it. We will have to do better next time around" - Coach Scott Balbin 

Next Up: With the series loss, the Tigers are now 13-22 overall and in conference they are 6-18. The Tigers will have a 4-game set at home against Southwestern Assemblies of God University Lions. The first game of the series will start on Friday at 3:30 and it will be streamed on the SAC Network.