KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Alexis D'Ambrosio and Ally Vonfeldt combined for seven hits and drove in 11 runs to lead Kansas City to a doubleheader sweep of South Dakota Friday at Urban Youth Academy. Scores were 9-3 and 9-5.
The wins made Kansas City (12-33, 8-11 Summit) the No. 5 seed in next week's Summit League Tournament in Brookings. They will play in the opening game, an elimination game, at 2 p.m. Wednesday against the No. 4 seed, which might very well be South Dakota. The Coyotes (27-22, 11-9) can move up to the three seed with a win against Kansas City Saturday coupled by a St. Thomas win against North Dakota State.
South Dakota outhit Kansas City during the twin bill 17-15. But timely hits by the Roos throughout the day, three Coyote errors and 11 free passes issued by USD pitching flipped the scores. Kansas City has won the last four meetings dating back to last season.
Gabby Moser made the most of her two hits for South Dakota. She laced a two-out, two-run double that tied game one 2-2 in the third. She hit a monster shot to straightaway center in the top of the first inning of game two that put the Coyotes ahead 2-0. It was her fourth home run of the season and she's now driven in 24.
South Dakota second baseman
Tatum Villotta extended her hitting streak to 10 games and totaled three hits on the day. That's the longest streak by a Coyote this season. The Roos avoided
Aleesia Sainz for the most part. Sainz had two hits in game two, but was walked twice and hit once in six plate appearances during the doubleheader.
South Dakota's defense misplayed the first play of the day and it led to two unearned runs in the first inning of game one. In inning three, it was a leadoff walk to the No. 9 batter that boosted a three-run inning and the Roos made it 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth following an error to the first hitter of the frame.
That proved plenty of support for veteran pitcher Mia Hoveland who went the distance in the circle for Kansas City in game one. She scattered seven hits, struck out four and walked three to move to 6-14 on the season.
Moser's first-inning home run in game two held up until the bottom of the fourth inning. Three walks loaded the bases for Kansas City and Kloe Hilbrenner plated two of them with a two-out double. D'Ambrosio backed that up with a three-run homer, her third of the season, and it was 5-2 Kansas City.
Rylee Nicholson's double in the top of the fifth scored Villotta, cut Kansas City's lead to 5-3, and chased Roos' starter Camryn Stickel. But more control issues put the game out of reach in the bottom of the fifth. Two walks, a hit by pitch and then a bases-clearing double by Ashley Thorne gave Kansas City eight runs on just four hits. Their fifth and final hit of game two was a solo shot by Vonfeldt in the sixth.
The final game of the series and of the regular season starts at 11 a.m. Saturday.
