CONCORDIA — Frustration with a dash of heartbreak filled the weekend for Allen Community Colleges softball team. SATURDAY’S ACTION didn’t go much better. Cloud erupted for eight in the bottom of the third in the first game to take control.
The Red Devils went a combined 0-4 on the weekend, dropping its final two games, 12-4 and 5-1, to Cloud County.
One day earlier, Allen lost to host Brown Mackie 15-5 and 8-7.
The 8-7 loss to Brown Mackie was particularly bitter. The Red Devils led 7-2 going into the bottom of the fifth before the Lions scored two runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings to close the gap before completing the comeback with Amber Venegas’ walk-off, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.
The defeats keep the Red Devils winless on the season.
Brown Mackie’s comeback negated Marissa Luna’s fifth-inning grand slam that gave Allen a 7-2 lead. The Red Devils also scored three in the top of the second on Erika King’s run-scoring single, a sac fly by Jordan Barber and an RBI grounder by Annie Gentry.
King, Shayla Stephens and Cassidy Reynolds each singled twice in ACC’s 11-hit attack. Gentry, Stormie Bush and L’Orien Pacheco each singled once.
Mackenzi Beck went the distance on the pitching rubber, giving up 12 hits and two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.
Allen started quickly in the opener as well, scoring twice in the first two innings.
Kayla Bourgeois struck a two-run single in the first; Luna smacked a run-scoring double, followed by Reynolds’ RBI grounder in the second.
But Allen’s bats went largely silent after that. Gentry’s run-scoring single in the fifth cut Brown Mackie’s lead to 9-5.
Brown Mackie tacked on four in the fourth, three in the fifth and three in the sixth to end the game.
Gentry had two singles, Luna a double and King, Bourgeois and Reynolds one single apiece.
Luna surrendered six hits and a walk in 2 1/3 innings. She struck out two. Emily England struck out three in 3 1/3 innings of relief. She gave up nine hits.
Allen’s runs came on Reynolds’ RBI double in the first, a fielding error in the fourth and two more on Shelby Maycumber’s two-out single in the fourth.
Luna started and gave up three hits in 1 2/3 innings. She walked three and struck out one. Emily England gave up four hits and three walks in two-thirds of an inning. Beck surrendered two hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Reynolds doubled, while King, Gentry, Bailey Burnett, Beck and Maycumber had singles.
Beck pitched a solid game in Saturday’s nightcap, but she was done in by seven ACC errors. She allowed four hits and one earned run in six innings.
Conversely, Allen loaded the bases in the second and third innings, but scored only one run on Luna’s bases-loaded walk. Maycumber and King had ACC’s only hits. Each had a single.
The Red Devils are home for doubleheaders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Red Devil softball struggles continue
