Eagles split with St. Paul; Humboldt sweeps

UNIONTOWN -- Uniontown's softball team split a make-up Three Rivers League doubleheader with St. Paul at George Warren Field Tuesday. The visiting Indians won the opener in eight innings, 10-8. The Eagles took the nightcap, 14-1, in five.

Wednesday, the Eagles hosted Humboldt rather than waiting until today, the originally-scheduled date, to get the games in before weather adversely affected them. The Cubs, often one of the region's better Class 3A teams, swept the non-league twinbill, 6-4 and 10-0.

Those were the first two of six doubleheaders the Eagles (7-3 TRL, 7-5 overall) will play in two weeks. They will travel to Jayhawk-Linn for a league doubleheader Friday -- weather permitting. Next week, they play a league doubleheader at Chetopa Monday, make-up non-league games at Yates Center Tuesday and host make-up games with Erie on May 9.

Tuesday: St. Paul 10-1, Uniontown 8-14.

St. Paul scored twice in the top of the eighth inning to win game one.

"This was a defensive game, where St. Paul outplayed us due to some mental errors and the fact that we have not played in two weeks due to inclement weather," Uniontown head coach Paula Coyan said. "It took us a while to start putting the ball in play. We didn't come alive until the fifth inning. The girls played hard and didn't give up, so I was proud of that fact."

Lakyn Coyan, Haley Felt and Mandie Ridge each had 2 hits for the Eagles. Taylor Wade struck out 4 batters.

The Eagles had 15 hits in the second game, scoring 8 in the fourth to make the run rule come into effect.

"We looked like a totally different team," Coyan said, noting every Eagle scored a run and Brit Stokes scored 4 times. "We had a lot of line-drive hits. I was proud of the fact that the girls came back to win this game by run ruling them after we lost a close decision in the first game."

Stokes, Ridge, Emily Shinn and Taylor Cooper had 2 hits each.

Ridge (2-0) was the winning pitcher, striking out 3 Indians.

Wednesday: Humboldt 6-10, Uniontown 4-0.

Uniontown scored twice in the fourth inning and twice in the sixth of the first game. Humboldt scored in every inning but the first and sixth. The Cubs led 4-0 after 3 1/2 innings after scoring once in the second, twice in the third and one in the fourth.

Stokes had 3 hits for the Eagles in this one. Shinn, Jamie Dawson and Torrie Hathaway had 2 each. Wade (5-5) had 4 strikeouts.

Richey, the Humboldt pitcher, dominated the Eagle lineup in the second game, allowing only one hit, which was to Dawson. Richey struck out 11 Eagles.

Humboldt scored in every inning of this game, which was stopped by the 10-run rule after six. The Cubs had a 3-run third inning and 2 in both the fifth and sixth.

NOTES -- Uniontown has been chosen to host a Class 2-1A Regional Tournament May 14 and 16. There will be six teams in the tournament with Altoona-Midway, Marmaton Valley, Northeast, St. Paul and Yates Center also appearing.

The first round of the single-elimination tournament hasn't been announced. The host school can choose to have the entire tournament played on its field or allow the higher-seeded teams to host first-round games. Since it's a six-team tournament, the top two seeds will have byes directly to the semifinals.

The semifinals and finals will be held at George Warren Field on May 16. The winner advances to the Class 2-1A State Tournament at Emporia's Trusler Sports Complex.

There is a change to the State Tournament this season -- which is also effective for all the classes in softball and in baseball. Instead of the traditional Friday-Saturday format, this year's tournament will be on a Thursday-Friday schedule (May 23 and 24 this season). Some of the reasoning behind the change is to have Saturday available as a make-up date. In the past, rain-outs have been very disruptive to State Tournament schedules....

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Tuesday's Games

Game One

St. Paul................ 301 202 02 -- 10

Uniontown........... 001 030 40 -- 8

WP -- Phillips. LP -- Wade (5-3).

HR -- None.

Game Two

St. Paul.................. 000 01x x -- 1

Uniontown............. 312 8xx x -- 14

WP -- Ridge (2-0). LP -- Albertine.

HR -- None.

Wednesday's Games

Game One

Humboldt............... 012 110 1 -- 6

Uniontown............. 000 202 0 -- 4

WP -- Turner. LP -- Wade (5-4).

HR -- None.

Game Two

Humboldt............... 113 122 x -- 10

Uniontown............. 000 000 x -- 0

WP -- Richey. LP -- Wade (5-5).

HR -- None.