The Lake Region State College softball team returned home on Wednesday and picked up a much-needed doubleheader sweep against Bismarck State College.
The Royals won their games 6-3 and 5-2, improving to 7-21 overall and 3-9 in conference play. They are in second-to-last place in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference. BSC is one spot ahead of them, 14-19-1 overall and 6-12 in conference play after Wednesday’s doubleheader.
Darian Bender went 5-for-8 between the two games, while also giving the team a strong pitching performance in the first game. Ella Neider went 5-for-6 with two walks. Bender’s performance improved her team-best batting average to .388 and OBP to .443. Her 6.41 ERA is also the best of any Royals pitcher, along with her 63 1/3 innings pitched.
LRSC had lost nine of its last 10 games entering Wednesday. But it got off on the right foot, scoring a run in each of the first two innings. Bender ripped an RBI single up the middle in the first inning. Then Maggie Bender led off the second with a triple, and scored on a groundout.
Bender didn’t allow a hit through the first 2 2/3 innings. With two outs in the third, though, the Mystics scratched out a soft infield hit and a single to left. They pulled off a double steal, and a run scored on an error by third baseman Whitney Rozdeba to make it 2-1.
But Bender helped her own cause again in the fifth, smacking an RBI double with two outs. Three more runs scored in the sixth on a double by Neider and a single by Rozdeba. LRSC had a 6-1 cushion.
Bender recorded the first two outs of the seventh, and was an out away from firing a complete game with just one run allowed. Four straight hits brought in two runs, but Bender still managed to complete the effort and give the Royals a 6-3 win.
She allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks in seven innings of work, while striking out four. She also went 3-for-4 at the plate.
The Royals scored all five of their runs in the first three innings of the second game. Bender and Rozdeba hit back-to-back singles to drive in the first run. LRSC drew a pair of walks in the second, and both came around to score. Avery Kamelchuk stole home while Neider went to third, and Neider later scored on a groundout. The two runs in the third inning came on a sacrifice bunt by Aliya Billay and a two-out single by Neider.
It was 5-0 after some nicely manufactured LRSC offense.
Rozdeba got the start in the circle and retired the first seven batters she faced. She issued a walk in each of the third and fourth innings, but responded with a pair of strikeouts in each inning.
She didn’t allow a hit until one out in the sixth, with a single that put runners on the corners. BSC executed its own steal of home, a single to center that made it 5-2.
Rozdeba struck out the first batter of the seventh, but was pulled from the game after walking the next two. Madison Dauphinais came in and walked the first hitter to load the bases. But she got the final out, stranding the potential tying runs on base and securing the doubleheader sweep.
Rozdeba struck out nine in her outing. Her performance, allowing two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings, improved her ERA to 7.36 with 33 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.
LRSC now goes on the road for a doubleheader against University of Jamestown JV on Thursday. It has four games against Dakota College at Bottineau over the weekend, two at home and two on the road.
