Feb. 26, 2005
Box Score
Louisville, Ky. - Playing only one game today at the Louisville Courtyard Marriott Red & Black Classic, the No. 24 Missouri softball team dominated Ball State, 13-1, in five innings at Ulmer Stadium in Louisville, Ky. The Tigers improve to 10-2 on the season (3-1 in tournament action), while sophomore pitcher Erica Peterson (Irving, Texas) improves to 6-1.
Playing strong offense, Missouri totaled a season high 18 hits and 13 runs including five doubles and a home run in the fourth inning by senior shortstop Heather Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill.). The moonshot to center field cleared the scoreboard and went into traffic helping Kunkel move to seventh in the Missouri Career Home Runs record book with nine smashed between 2002-05.
Freshman Amanda Renth (Mascoutah, Ill.) pounded two of MU's doubles in the first and fourth inning. Only 12 games into the season, Renth has tallied 10 hits, five doubles, three runs and three RBI. Today, Renth was 4-4, with two RBI and two runs and is the only Tiger this season to record a four-hit game. As a team, Missouri tallied 18 hits in 29 at bats, surpassing the previous season high hit total of 10 previously set against Nicholls State, Feb. 12, at the Seminole Classic in Tallahassee, Fla.
Redshirt freshman Micaela Minner (Sanger, Texas) had a team high 5 RBI in the game against the Cardinals, driving in runs in the first, second and fifth innings.
Sophomore Leanne Bowers (Arnold, Mo.) continued on with Missouri's longest active hit streak. Going 1-1 on the day, Bowers has extended her hit streak to nine games.
The Tigers scored two runs in the first inning, followed with four in the second, two in the third and fourth and three in the fifth. The victory over Ball State marks the second game of the season where Missouri has shut down opponents in only five innings.
Peterson, MU's lefty, tossed the entire game, striking out six Cardinals and allowing only one run on four hits. To date, Peterson owns a .71 ERA and has given up only nine runs in 49 innings of work while fanning 56 batters.
Missouri improves to 3-0 all-time against Ball State and will take on the Cardinals in a doubleheader home opener March 9, at 2 and 4 p.m. (CT).
The Tigers will wrap up the Louisville Courtyard Marriott Red & Black Classic tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. (CT) against Iowa.