BONNE TERRE — The Saxony Lutheran Lady Crusaders dropped an extra innings game Thursday and won a pair of softball games in the North County Tournament on Friday in Bonne Terre.
In Thursday’s 9-8 extra innings loss, the Saxony offense was led by Natalie Brown and Isabelle Craft, who both had two hits. Brown drove in two runs and Craft drove in one, with RBI also coming from Halle Christisen and Kinley Faulkenberry. Brown pitched the complete game, striking out three.
“The Kelly game was just a really good ball game between both teams,” head coach Mark Lewis said. “Natalie Brown started on the mound, she threw well. And we just ended up losing a close ball game with them for the second time this year. We had some really big plays and we had a one run lead going into the bottom of the eight. And they scored two to win it.”
The Lady Crusaders responded well to the loss, picking up wins in their next two ballgames.
In a 6-2 win over Fox, Madilyn Hager got a complete game win, pitching all 7 innings, striking out six Fox batters.
“Hager pretty much just shut them down, she threw really well,” Lewis said.”
Craft was again a leader at the plate, with two hits in the game. Faulkenberry and Huskey both drove in runs in the win as well.
The Crusaders followed the win over Fox with a 2-0 win over Farmington. Faulkenberry and Emma Leible drove in the two runs in the victory.
Lewis said the wins in the tournament should be a big boost in confidence for the Lady Crusaders after a recent skid where they hadn’t played as well as they expected.
“We did not play very well earlier in the week against a couple of teams, “ Lewis said. “But we seemed to give better effort and a better mindset over the last three games. I’m looking forward to seeing if we can continue that going into this week.”
The Lady Crusaders will play in a trio of games over the week before returning home on Tuesday Sept. 29 to host Perryville. First pitch from Jackson is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
