Box Score Box score
The schedule had rolled through 11 games without the defending UMAC-champion Saints picking up there first win. They just needed to play against another Saints team it seems as St. Scholastica defeated the Maryville (Mo.) University Saints 5-4 in the opening game of the St. Louis Invitational on Saturday morning.
After jumping on top 1-0 in the top of the first, St. Scholastica starter Kayla Jenkins (Esko, Minn./Esko HS) surrendered a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning as Maryville took a 2-1 lead.
St. Scholastica, though, plated two more runs in the top of the second to retake the lead but, again, it was short-lived as Maryville tied it in the bottom of the inning.
Unearned runs have bothered the Saints all season long but this time they were on the good side of that equation as they picked up two in the top of the fifth, enough for Jenkins to finally earn the team their first win of the year.
Jenkins flirted with trouble in most innings, spreading out 10 hits over seven innings in the circle for CSS, but she didn't issue a walk, struck out two, and received help from her defense throughout the game.
St. Scholastica ended Maryville's first inning getting the final out at third base. In the second, catcher Katie Brown (Emmett, Idaho/Emmett HS) caught a Maryville base-runner trying to steal second for the last out., while the third inning ended on a double-play.
Jenkins (1-6) battled base-runners in each of the final four innings but allowed only one run to keep St. Scholastica (1-11) in front of Maryville (11-10).
Lead off hitter Chelsey Weiss (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd HS) didn't have a hit in the game but helped spur the offense by twice reaching base after being hit by a pitch and scoring both times. Michaela Carlson (Alexandria, Minn./Jefferson Senior HS) finished the game 2-for-3 with a walk and collected a pair of RBI with her two-out single in the second.
Next up for St. Scholastica in St. Louis is an early-afternoon game against the 12th-ranked Bears from Washington (Mo.) University.
