Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The 14th-ranked Fort Hays State softball team took a split for the second straight day at home, this time with Pittsburg State on Saturday (Apr. 13). The Tigers pulled out an intense game one pitching dual by a score of 1-0 in 10 innings, but fell in game two 9-6. Fort Hays State moved to 35-7 overall and 15-3 in the MIAA. Pittsburg State is now 19-19 overall and 7-11 in the MIAA.

Game 1: Fort Hays State 1, Pittsburg State 0 (10 inn.)

Game one came down to the international tiebreaker after neither team could score in the first nine innings. Fort Hays State won the game on a sacrifice fly RBI by Tori Beltz after Paxton Duran sacrificed Amanda Vaupel on second over to third to start the bottom half of the 10th. The Tigers were lucky since in the top half of the inning, a ball that was rocketed up the middle with two outs that was heading for the outfield struck Pittsburg State's runner going from second to third.

Maddie Holub fought through control issues throughout the game, walking six and hitting three batters. She also allowed five hits, but still managed to strikeout 13 in the game. She stranded 14 PSU runners on base in the game. The Gorillas had runners in scoring position in seven of the 10 innings. The gritty 193-pitch effort by Holub gave her the win, moving to 20-1 overall on the season. The 20 wins is a new single-season record at Fort Hays State as Holub becomes the first 20-game winner in school history.

Holub saw her streak of 19 consecutive hitless innings come to an end in the fourth inning against PSU. She started the streak in the final two innings of a 2-1 win over Missouri Western in 12 innings, then had her two consecutive perfect games, and then kept PSU hitless for three innings on Saturday.

Kyndel Shelburn kept FHSU hitters off balance throughout the entire game and had a no-hitter all the way through the eighth inning before Courtney Dobson had a single to lead off the ninth deep in the hole between shortstop and third base. That was the only hit of the game for FHSU as it manufactured the run in the 10th without a hit. Shelburn struck out 12 in 9.2 innings of work, while walking five.

Game 2: Pittsburg State 9, Fort Hays State 6

The second game was much like game two the day before against Missouri Southern where the Tigers struggled defensively and allowed too much offense. The Tigers allowed nine runs in the second game for the second straight day after falling 9-8 to Missouri Southern.

The Gorillas jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first, both on unearned runs with two Tiger errors in the inning. However, FHSU battled back to score twice in the bottom half of the inning on a two-RBI single by Danie Brinkmann.

Pittsburg State took a sizable lead in the third with four runs, but the Tigers cut the deficit in half by plating two in the bottom half of the inning on RBI singles by Brinkmann and Paxton Duran to make it 6-4.

After Duran surrendered six runs (four earned) through the first three innings, Jordan Jones took over for an inning and allowed one more run to the Gorillas in the fourth. But the Tigers battled back once again getting two in the bottom half of the inning to make it 7-6 thanks to a pair of errors by the Gorillas. Maddie Holub had a sacrifice fly RBI in the inning.

Holub entered to pitch the final three innings of the game and she saw a 40-inning scoreless streak come to an end in the sixth when she allowed two runs. She also opened the year with a 40-inning scoreless streak until allowing a fourth-inning run to Wayne State (Neb.) in her sixth start of the season. The most recent 40-inning span went from the final inning of her start against Panhandle State all the way through her second inning of relief against PSU on Saturday.

The Tiger offense could not get any runs across the rest of the way against PSU reliever Kylie Harpst, who pitched the final 5.0 innings of the game and surrended just two runs to FHSU (no earned runs). She picked up the win moving to 4-3. Duran took the loss for FHSU and is now 13-6.