Bentonville, Ark. - The Missouri Southern Lions Softball team used the long ball again on the final day of the University of Arkansas at Monticello to beat Rockhurst and fifth ranked Southern Arkansas to finish the tournament at Memorial Park with a 4-2 record.

Game One
For the second time this season Southern and Rockhurst squared off at a neutral site. Rockhurst won the first meeting coming from behind to beat the Lions 7-4 in Durant, Okla. This time it was the Hawks who jumped out to the early lead with two runs in the bottom of the second on a single down the right field line by Madison Wagner.

The game stayed at 2-0 until the top of the fifth when Southern did most of its damage. Junior Abi Corbett had a one out single to the shortstop and stole second before scoring on fellow junior Shelby Friend's single to center. Friend scored on a wild pitch two batters later and sophomore Angel Badalamenti stroked a RBI double to right center that scored freshman Erika Lutgen and that forced a Rockhurst pitching change. After a pair of errors by the Hawks defense sophomore Kylie Wesbrooks drew a bases loaded walk to make it 4-2 Lions. Senior Sydney Koch made it 6-2 with a two RBI double down the left field line that scored Wesbrooks and sophomore Taurean Guzman.

The  Hawks closed the gap to 6-5 with three runs in the bottom half of the fifth on a passed ball that scored Wagner and a double by Lauren Marks that scored two. Rockhurst tied the game in the sixth with a double to left by Hanna Stam and on the next batter Stam was thrown out at home trying to score from first on a single to left.

Southern came back in the top of the seventh with a pair of runs on solo home runs from Badalamenti and Guzman, it was Guzman's first career home run in a Lions uniform.

Badalamenti led the offensive attack going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and runs scored. Guzman and Friend also had multi-hit games going 2-for-3 and 2-for-4 respectively while Koch picked up a pair of RBIs and Wesbrooks finished with the one RBI.

Guzman got the start going four and a third innings allowing five runs, two earned, on six hits with a walk and a strike out. Koch pitched two and two-thirds in relief to get the win allowing just one run, earned, on four hits with three strike outs.

Game Two
In the final game of the UAM 8 State Classic the Lions battled the fifth ranked Southern Arkansas (SAU) Muleriders. SAU got things started in the bottom of the first with a solo home run and tacked on another in the second and one in the third for the early 3-0 lead. In the fourth inning the Muleriders scored on a two out bases loaded single to left and Friend gunned down the second runner at home to keep the game at 4-0.

Following a scoreless fifth, the Lions' bats came alive when Corbett led the inning off with a single back up the middle. Lutgen followed that with a one out single to left that moved Corbett to third. Badalamenti stepped into the batters box and sent a laser shot down the left field line for a three run home run to cut the Southern Arkansas lead down to 4-3 and prompted a pitching change for the Muleriders.

SAU got another solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-3 headed into the top of the seventh. The Lions had to claw back again this time senior Sarah Morrison led the inning off with a single to center and advanced to second on a passed ball. Morrison moved to third on a ground out back to the pitcher by Corbett and scored to make it 5-4 on a two out single to right by Lutgen. With a pinch runner, freshman Elizabeth Windsor, on first Badalamenti squeaked a two run shot just out of the reach of the Muleriders' left fielder to give Southern their first lead of the game at 6-5.

The bottom of the seventh saw SAU lead off with a ground out to second followed by a hit by pitch and a walk that prompted Coach Melissa Chmielewski to make a pitching change. Guzman came in relief and gave up a single to left that loaded the bases with one out then struck out the next batter and induced a ground out to shortstop to end the game.

Badalamenti led the offense going 3-for-4 with five RBIs and two runs scored. Corbett, Lutgen, and sophomore Ashley Caldarella also tallied a multi-hit game with two each.

Freshman Mikaela Cox got the start and the win for Southern going six and a third innings allowing five runs, four earned, on seven hits with a pair of walks and strike outs. Guzman recorded the save going two-thirds of an innings allowing just one hit and striking out one.

On The Day
Badalamenti finished the day 6-for-8 (.750) with a double and three home runs and seven RBIs. She also finished with a slugging percentage of 2.000 and an on base percentage of .750. Guzman went 3-for-7 on the day with a home run and a slugging percentage of .857. Caldarella finished 3-for-7 with a double.

Koch led the pitching staff with a 2.62 ERA going 1-0 on the day. She allowed just one run, earned, on two and two-thirds innings of work with three strike outs and four hits. Guzman finished the day with a 2.80 ERA and a save allowing five runs, two earned, on seven hits with a walk and two strike outs. Cox allowed just the five runs on seven hits and held the opponents to a team low .269 batting average.

On The Weekend
Lutgen led the Lions on the weekend going 10-for-19 (.526) with five runs scored and 14 RBIs on four home runs. Her slugging percentage was 1.158 and on base percentage was .571. Lutgen not only set the school single game record for RBIs in a game against UIS on Saturday morning she also set a new MIAA record, the old record was eight and held by three players including Wichita State head coach Kristi Bredbenner.

Badalamenti finished 11-for-21 at the plate (.524) with four doubles and three home runs and nine RBIs. Badalamenti's slugging percentage was 1.143 and her on base percentage was .524. Corbett hit at a .417 (10-for-24) clip while leading the team in runs scored with seven. Friend was second on the team in runs scored with six and hit .409 (9-for-22) on the weekend with a double and five RBIs.

Cox led the team in ERA on the weekend with a 3.73 going 1-0 in four appearances and two starts. Cox pitched 15 innings allowing eight earned runs on 22 hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Koch led the team in opponent batting average allowing opponents to hit just .275 while striking out six in ten and a third innings of work. Guzman also held the opponents under .300 with a .286 batting average. Guzman also struck out six en route to a 1-1 record on the weekend in 13 and a third innings of work.

Up Next
The Lions will take this coming week off before  hosting the Teri Mathis-Zenner Memorial Tournament the first weekend in March at the Joplin Sports Complex.