Plainswomen Drop Two Against Trinidad State

The Plainswomen softball team would play host to the Trinidad State Trojans at home at Pioneer Park.  Northeastern has had their ups and downs the last few series against Otero, McCook, and most recently, Trinidad at their field, and were looking at trying to gain some momentum before the tail end of their regular season.  With a postseason berth on the line, the Plainswomen have to win some of these last few games in the series to give themselves a shot at being one of the top four in the south division to be able to continue to the Region IX Tournament.

The series against the Trojans would be an important one in that Trinidad had gotten the better of the Plainswomen down in Trinidad.  The ladies knew that being on their home field would play in their favor, and if they could put together a full seven innings, they would put themselves in a good position to win the series.  The first game, the Plainswomen would trail early as the Trojans would hit a two-run homerun.  Northeastern would be able to get their first score in the bottom of the third as Katy Ridener would score off of Alicia Grauberger's sacrifice fly.  That would be the lone run for NJC as they would struggle to get other runner around to score.  In the top of the fifth, the Trojans would hit a grand slam to make it a 6-1 game, which would ultimately be the final score.

The second game, the Plainswomen were hoping to have better success against the Trojans.  They were hoping that with the same pitcher on the mound in the second game, that she would tire out and could get some runs batted in.  That was not the case however as the Trojans would stand their ground.  Just as in the first, the Plainswomen would trail by two before a double by Annaliese Cordova would score in Brooke King.  That run would be their first and last of the game as the Trojans would keep them from scoring any more.  Trinidad would go on to extend their lead despite Lindsay Niederkorn's efforts on the mound. 

Head Coach Tom Myers was quoted in the Journal Advocate, "You tip your cap to their pitcher; she shut us down honestly.  For whatever reason, we didn't hit and we've hit all season long at home.  Our pitchers kept us in it and it was really one of those days where we didn't hit and it doesn't happen that often.  It was just a bad day not to come out and swing the bat."

Those losses impact the Plainswomen in their hunt to make it to the post season tournament.  There are only four sub-regions games remaining for the Plainswomen to give them points to move up in seeding. 

"At home, I thought for sure that we could come away with a split and keep us in the hunt," Myers said.  "We've played so well at home and to come out in games of this magnitude and struggle completely is unfortunate.  We've got four more left and we're still alive, so we'll see what happens Sunday and go from there."

The Plainswomen' next games will be on the road as they travel to McCook to play the Indians before they return home to play Colby CC and then Western Nebraska for their final home series.