The Allen Red Devils opened the 2026 softball season with a pair of losses to the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Lady Norse 8-0, 5-1 in Saturday’s doubleheader.
Following NEO pitcher Gracie MacIntosh’s nine strikeout no-hitter in the opener, the Red Devils found their footing with a few hits in game two but it was not enough to get into contention.
“We could have competed better,” Allen coach Nicole Peters said. “We have to be better at the plate, and we struggled with that a little bit today.”
Freshman pitcher Andrea Ruby took the loss in the opener. She allowed eight runs on eight hits and four walks, but picked up a pair of strikeouts in her college debut. Freshman Addie Keys had a similar performance in the finale. She allowed five runs on nine hits and three walks while also picking up a pair of strikeouts.
“We saw some things we’re going to learn from. That’s for sure,” Peters said. “We’re freshman heavy, so we had a lot of freshman mistakes, but there were a lot of things to grow from too.”
Keys had a bit more offensive support in game two as freshman outfielder Kara Walter hit in 2 of 4 at-bats while sophomore second baseman Makayla Hischmann went a perfect 2 of 2. Sophomore outfielder Ella McCammon hit in 1 of 3 appearances. The Red Devils had no RBIs. Freshman Olivia Russell represented Allen’s only run..
“We just have things we have to work on next week in practice,” Peters said. “We took a few too many pitches today and we were swinging at stuff that wasn’t our normal pitch selection. We were chasing a little bit.”
