Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Kearney, Neb. – The 24th-ranked Missouri Western State softball team scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning and then tallied three in the 10th to sweep a double header from Nebraska-Kearney, 7-1 and 8-5, Saturday afternoon at Dryden Park.
 
Behind solid pitching by junior Brittnie Kreiser (Council Bluffs, Ia.), UNK was poised for the upset in game two as they led 5-3 heading into the top of the seventh.
 
The Lopers (7-21, 2-10) erased an early 2-0 hole by taking advantage of four Griffon errors and a passed ball to score a total of four unearned runs. A two-run second featured a violent collision as junior center fielder Whitney Frederick (Blair) hit a come backer to Western (26-10, 10-4) pitcher Janie Smith.
 
Smith threw wide of first, causing Frederick to run into first baseman Tiffany Gillaspy. Two Lopers scored on the play but Frederick didn't return.
 
In the Western seventh, designated player Brooke Schaben led off with a double to right that a diving Mackenzie Tomlin (Grand Island) almost caught. After a strikeout, Schaben moved to third on a Loper error.
 
With runners at second and third, Gillaspy (3 for 4, three runs & four RBI's) delivered a two-run single to left to tie the game. UNK, which stranded 10, had the potential game winning run in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings but Smith (13-6) worked out of each jam.
 
The international tie breaker rule took effect in the 10th inning and Western grabbed the lead for good on a wild pitch. Center fielder Maegan Roemmich (2 for 5) then belted her sixth homer of the year, a two-run shot, to pad the Western lead.
 
Smith allowed 11 hits and one earned in 10 innings of work. Fanning eight, she walked just three and didn't hit a batter. Three Lopers had two hits in the loss, including junior catcher Jen Kramer (North Platte).
 
Western scored four in the third and three in the fifth to win game one. A 12-hit attack featured a two-run single by catcher Kate Steponovich in the fifth.
 
UNK mustered just four hits off two Griffon hurlers with Papillion senior Becky Dunn allowing three earned in 4.1 innings of relief work.
 
The Lopers host Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern State next Friday and Saturday.