By Ryan Atkinson

ratkinson@joplinglobe.com

The awakening of Fort Hays State’s bats meant big trouble for the Missouri Southern softball team on Friday.

Fort Hays ripped 26 hits —including five doubles and three home runs — and posted a doubleheader sweep of the Lions 6-5 and 9-1 in MIAA play at Gene Wild Field.

“They just outhit us,” MSSU coach Aron Potter said. “They have an outstanding hitting team. I don’t think we played badly, they just hit us.”

That they did. The Tigers (23-15, 2-2 MIAA) stroked 10 hits in the opener before pounding 16 more in the nightcap.

Fort Hays sophomore catcher Jessika Anastos, who leads the nation with her .573 batting average in the latest NCAA Division II statistics, went 3-for-9 with two doubles, a home run, two RBI and three runs scored. And she wasn’t even close to having the best offensive day among the Tigers.

Junior third baseman Hallie McMillen was 6-for-9 with a pair of runs and a pair of RBI while senior outfielder Anna Herl went 5-for-8 with three runs, four RBI and a homer.

“We have a good offensive club,” Fort Hays coach Tonja Hadley said. “We haven’t really swung the bats (lately) as well as I would have liked, but we managed to come out tonight and string some hits together. It’s good for our kids to kind of get back into the swing of things.”

The Lions (4-18, 1-3) kept the Tigers relatively quiet at the plate in the opener but could never grab the lead. Fort Hays had a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth when the Lions made some noise.

MSSU senior Julie Taylor led off with a single to left, stole second and later scored when Tamika Barnes’ bunt was booted by the Tigers. Kayleigh Cecil then lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Andrea Childs and cut the Tiger lead to 4-3 with just one out, but MSSU couldn’t push another run across in the frame.

The Tigers added two more in the fifth on Terra Fraser’s two-run double, but Barnes took over in the pitcher’s circle and shut down Fort Hays’ rally.

MSSU answered with two runs of its own — Cecil had an RBI single and Lauren Hasty took a bases-loaded pitch to the helmet to drive in another run — but Fort Hays’ Kayla Rupa came in to pitch and got two straight outs with the bases loaded to keep the 6-5 Tiger lead safe.

“We tried our hardest in that first one,” Potter said. “We did a lot of things to try to get that ball game won. We could have laid down early, but we didn’t. We hung in there and kept fighting for a run or two here and there. We just couldn’t get it going completely.”

MSSU trailed just 1-0 after three innings in the nightcap before the Tigers exploded. Fort Hays scored five in the fourth inning thanks to a pair of home runs and a double that nearly made it over the left-center field fence.

Anastos drilled the inning’s first homer, a two-run, no-doubter to center that gave her a school-record 12 for the season. Anna Herl followed two batters later with an opposite field solo shot.

“(Anastos) is pretty outstanding at the plate and obviously she’s our catalyst,” Hadley said. “But I feel like we have quite a few good offensive players. We haven’t been stringing it together. One person is hot one day and the rest of them aren’t ... so it was nice to see them put it back-to-back today.”

Missouri Southern’s lone run came in the sixth when Taylor lifted a solo home run to center.

“We never really recovered in game two,” Potter said. “We never got ourselves in a good rhythm off (Fort Hays pitcher Emily Rockefeller) until there at the last and that’s going to hurt.”

Taylor finished the night 3-for-7 with three runs and an RBI while Angie Turner was 4-for-8.

“We’re beat up and we’re tired and we’re sore, but at the same time, this is a talented enough team that I think we can fight through that and get some more wins,” Potter said. “We have some good things still to come yet. We’re going to get better. We get a couple days off here and we’re going to get healthy and get things settled down. We’ll be all right.”

The Lions play host to Southwest Baptist in a nonconference doubleheader on Monday before hosting Pittsburg State on Wednesday for an MIAA twinbill.