Mustangs stay alive in GPAC Tournament

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The first day of the Great Plains Athletic Conference softball tournament was played Wednesday, with Morningside, Midland, Jamestown, and Hastings competing in the Morningside Pod of the tournament at Elizabeth and Irving F. Jensen Softball Complex in Sioux City. 

Morningside fell to Hastings in the first game of the tournament, 3-1. 

Hastings scored the first run of the tournament in the top of the third inning as Macie Mays singled in a run for Hastings. A home run from Taylor Stuhr in the sixth made it 3-0. 

The Mustangs threatened in the bottom of the sixth and were able to scratch a run across with an Ellie Cropley single. Despite a runner on third base, the Mustangs couldn't bring another run across. 

In the bottom of the seventh, after a clean inning from Grace Buffington for Morningside, The Mustangs put plenty of pressure on the Broncos. Morgan Nixon singled, Ellie Gengler walked, and Mackenna Sidzyik walked to load the bases with one out. The Mustangs weren't able to bring any of the runners in to score and the Broncos prevailed. 

Buffington pitched seven innings, striking out four.

Midland defeated Jamestown 5-0 to set up games three and four of the day. Midland took on Hastings in the battle of first round winners, with Midland prevailing 8-0 in five innings. Following that game, Morningside took on Jamestown in an elimination game, with the Mustangs pulling out a 5-0 win.

Morningside wasted no time getting ahead in game one, as Cropley singled to bring in Mykel Ann Gray. Cropley's at-bat was also her 694th career at-bat, setting the program record for career at-bats. 

It took a few more inning for more damage to be done, but in the bottom of the fourth, Vanessa Bohuslavsky put down a bunt. Jamestown made a throwing error trying to get her out at first, and two runs came in to score. In the following at bat, Gray grounded out to third, but Bohuslavsky sprinted to third base, forcing the first baseman to try and throw back across the diamond. The throw got by the player covering third and Bohuslavsky scored. The final Mustang run can in the sixth when Cropley doubled home Taylor Richter, who was running for Katie Murphy.

Grace Buffington tossed five innings of shutout softball. Bralen Biddlecome pitched two relief innings.

The loss ended Jamestown's season. The win for Morningside sets up a rematch with Hastings at noon tomorrow. The winner will face Midland at 2 p.m. If Midland were to win the 2 p.m. game, the Warriors would head to the GPAC Championship series, but if they lose, there would be a winner-take-all final game at 4 p.m. Info for the Morningside Pod of the GPAC Tournament can be found here.