A two-run double by freshman Liz Leath capped the 2012 Truman softball regular season in style, as the Bulldogs earned a 9-1 run-rule victory against Sioux Falls (S.D.) on Sunday afternoon.
The Bulldogs lost 6-2 in eight innings in the opener.
Truman (23-28, 6-14 MIAA) learned on Sunday that it had not received a bid to the MIAA postseason tournament, being edged out as part of a three-team tiebreaker for the tourney’s No. 8 spot.
The Bulldogs gave freshman Kelsea Dorsey more than enough run support in game two, as the Bulldog pitcher allowed just one hit while her teammates pounded out 15 of their own to pick up a split.
Sophomore Kelsey Bollman had a pair of doubles as part of her three-hit game and scored three times out of the leadoff spot, while five other ’Dogs each tallied multi-hit games.
Senior Bridgey Schade gave the Bulldogs the lead for good in the third inning when she blasted a 3-0 pitch over the left-center field wall for a two-run shot.
From there, the purple and white added two in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings – punctuated with Leath’s double to the right-center field wall – to earn a 9-1, six-inning victory.
Dorsey struck out eight and walked just one, while giving up only one hit – a leadoff single in the second. She finished the season with 16 wins, the most by any Truman pitcher since Loni Wedemeier’s 21-win campaign in 2005.
The victory followed a 6-2 extra-inning win by USF in the opener that saw Truman rebound from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in its final at-bat and force an extra inning.
After Leah Leath drove home senior Katie Pitts to make it a one-run game, junior Laura Miller brought in sophomore pinch-runner Danielle Lewellen on a 2-2 pitch to even the score.
However, it took USF just one batter to get the lead in the top of the eighth, as the Cougars plated the placed runner as part of the international tiebreaker, then exploded for three more to take a 6-2 edge.
Pitts and sophomore Corey Niblett recorded two hits each for Truman, who started senior Ashley Rotkvich before turning to junior Kirsten Krause in the eighth.
The Bulldogs set new program single-season records for batting average (.313) and slugging percentage (.454) while finishing one double short (78) of tying another program mark.
In addition, several Bulldogs inked their spots in program history, led by Schade’s career .383 batting average (3rd all-time) and 18 home runs (4th all-time).
Rotkvich moved into a tie for second all-time in career pitching appearances (104), while finishing seventh in innings pitched (385.0) and tenth in strikeouts (165).
Fellow senior Mary Manley capped her career sixth all-time in career doubles with 33.
Truman’s four-player senior class – Manley, Pitts, Rotkvich and Shade – combined for a .287 batting average in more than 1,300 at-bats, including 28 home runs, 192 RBI’s and 46 stolen bases in nearly 550 games played.
The Bulldogs are set to return 13 players from this year’s squad for the 2013 season, including seven regular field starters and two of its three pitchers.
Courtesy Truman State University
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