Fort Hays State Softball picked up a sweep of Newman in a midweek doubleheader on Tuesday (March 31) at Tiger Stadium.  The Tigers defeated the Jets, 9-3, to start the day and closed the doubleheader with a 5-0 victory.
 
FHSU (19-14) has now won eight of its last 10 and returns to MIAA play this weekend with doubleheaders against Missouri Western (Friday, April 3) and Northwest Missouri State (Saturday, April 4).
 
Complete recaps of Tuesday's games are below…
 
Fort Hays State 9, Newman 3
Fort Hays State jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, winning the first game of the day, 9-3, over Newman.
 
Paxton Duran picked up her 10th win of the season and is now 10-6 overall in 17 appearances.  Duran threw all seven innings, scattering seven hits with eight strikeouts in the game.  Duran did not walk a batter in the victory.
 
Kylie Strand and Tori Beltz each went 3-for-4 on the day with three RBI on three extra base hits. Strand had a double and two home runs in the game while Beltz tied a school record for doubles in a single game with three.  Courtney Dobson finished 2-for-3 on the day with an RBI, a double and two runs scored, and Erin Elmore had two hits with two runs scored as well.
 
Strand led off the game with a double down the right field line, and with one out came around to score when Beltz took a 1-1 pitch on a line to right center field.  Later in the inning with bases loaded, Rilee Krier singled through the left side with two outs to score Beltz and give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
 
FHSU extended the lead to 4-0 in the second with another two doubles, taking advantage of a Newman error to score two runs.  After Dobson doubled to start the inning, the shortstop came around to score when Erin Elmore's single to left field was mishandled by NU's Madison Bish, allowing Elmore to reach third.  Beltz's second double of the day followed to score Elmore.
 
A one-out home run from Kylie Strand put the Tigers up five early in the fourth, and after a single from Elmore, Beltz hit her third two-bagger of the game to score the catcher. The hit tied Beltz with Emily Herl for the school's single-game doubles record.  Herl set it in 2006 against Colorado Mines.
 
NU got three back in its half of the fifth, but FHSU answered in the bottom half with three of its own. Krier was hit by a pitch to start the inning, promptly stole second and took third on a passed ball.  With one out, Dobson singled to score Krier, sending Strand to the plate with one out.  Strand pushed FHSU's lead back to six (9-3) by driving a line shot over the left field wall for her second home run of the day.
 
Duran and the Tigers closed out the game with a pair of three up, three down innings to secure the win.
 
Fort Hays State 5, Newman 0
FHSU shut out Newman in the finale of Tuesday's action, completing the sweep with a 5-0 victory.

Kelsey Kimminau (8-7) threw a complete game shutout for the win, striking out five and walking just one Jet over seven innings.  Kimminau gave up five hits in the game while moving above the .500 mark for the season.
 
Samantha Villarreal had two hits for the Tigers, while Mackenzie Villarreal hit her first career home run.  Krier had a triple and Dobson added a double for the Tigers' extra base efforts.
 
FHSU took an early lead in the first for the second time on the day, using Samantha Villarreal's two-out RBI single to drive home Strand, who led off the game with a single.
 
That score held until the fourth when Mackenzie Villarreal's first career home run came on the first pitch of the inning, making it 2-0.
 
Newman threatened in its half of the sixth, putting runners on the corners with two outs before a runner was called out for leaving early to end the inning.
 
The Tigers added insurance runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to three straight extra base hits.  After Mackenzie Villarreal reached on a fielder's choice (and was replaced by Gabrielle Sandoval as a pinch runner), Krier laced a triple down the right field line to score Sandoval.  From there, Knittig and Dobson had back-to-back doubles to left center, Krier and Knittig and pushing the lead to 5-0.