Softball Opens Season with Pair of Losses in Iowa

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (02/16/2025) — The Monmouth College softball team opened their season on Saturday with a double header in Davenport, Iowa at the Ambrose Dome. The Scots fell 10-2 in five innings in both games to Simpson College and St. Ambrose.

Monmouth fell behind 1-0 in the second inning and the Storm added three more against starting pitcher Lizzie Durfee (Arlington, Washington) in the third.

Mackenzie Gerard (Jacksonville, Illinois) walked to start the bottom of the third and Brooklyn Manners (Burleson, Texas) reached on an error. With one out, Grace Wyman (Pekin, Illinois) singled to load the bases. Karliegh Ashby (Monmouth, Illinois) singled home Gerard to get the Scots on the board and Shelby Covey (Peoria, Illinois) brought home Manners with a sacrifice fly.

Simpson scored five runs on five hits in the fourth to push the lead to 9-2. The Scots got a runner on in their half of the fourth as Kendall Lewis (Cambridge, Illinois) singled but a double play ended the inning. The Storm added a run in the fifth against reliever Addie Greene (Rushville, Illinois) and when the Scots went 1-2-3 the game was over on the run-rule.

GAME 2

The Scots got things going in the top of the first against St. Ambrose but couldn't score. Wyman led off with a walk and Ashby reached on an infield single. Covey advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt but the Bees escaped the inning with two left in scoring position.

Alyssa Hefflefinger (Olin, Iowa) started in the circle for the Scots and recorded two strikeouts in the first inning. Maddie Hepner (Alexis, Illinois) singled in her first collegiate at-bat and Alexis Hardy (Rushville, Illinois) walked but the Scots stranded a pair in the second as well.

St. Ambrose took the lead in the second with a leadoff single, stolen base, sacrifice bunt and a double. After a walk put two on, another double made it 3-0 and the Bees added a fourth run before the inning ended.

Monmouth got on the board in the third. Ashby led off with a double, her second hit of the game and she moved to third on a single by Covey. PInch-runner Ashley Juerjens (Delavan, Illinois) stole second and Lewis got hit by a pitch with one out. With two outs, Brooklyn Millhollin (Peoria, Illinois) walked for her first career RBI as Ashby scored.

Down 6-1 in the fourth, Hardy led off with a double. Wyman made it 6-2 with a RBI single but the next three batters were retired in order.

McKealey Klokkinga (Delavan, Illinois) took over in the circle in the fifth and the Bees plated three runs on five hits for a 9-2 lead. A double resulted in a walk-off 10-2 run-rule win for St. Ambrose.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Seven players made their Monmouth debuts on Saturday ... Wyman and Ashby had hits in both games ... Ashby tallied three hits on the day ... Wyman, Ashby, Covey and Millhollin had RBI while Manners, Gerard, Hardy and Ashby scored runsSaturday was the first game as head coach for Tyler Inselmann and first as assistant coach for Addy Williams ... Inselmann was an assistant coach for the Scots the last two seasons ... The Scots are off until March 1 when they play a double header at Blackburn ... The home opener is March 18 against Illinois Wesleyan.