ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Dominant pitching and timely hitting ruled the day for Winona State University on Friday as the Warriors opened play at Missouri Western's annual Hy-Vee Classic with a pair of wins. Jordyn Kleman improved to 7-0 in the circle in the opener ahead of Liz Pautz's season-high 13 strikeouts in the nightcap.
Kleman and Winona State held on a for a 5-3 win over Northwest Missouri State to begin the day before Pautz dazzled Missouri Southern State in a 2-0 victory.
No. 22 Winona State improves to 15-3 with the sweep.
The Warriors led wire-to-wire in the opener thanks to a two-out rally started on a Lani Van Zyl walk in the top of the first inning. Alison Nowak followed with her first of three hits in the game to put two runners on ahead of an RBI-single by Alexis Kelsey that broke the scoring seal. Rylee Stout kept the inning going with an RBI-single of her own to send Kleman to work with a 2-0 lead.
Kleman worked around some early traffic in the ballgame, including a bases-loaded spot in the third inning, to blank Northwest Missouri State over her first six innings of work. The junior right-hander faced just one over the minimum from the fourth through sixth innings before the Bearcats pounced in the bottom of the seventh.
Northwest Missouri State's Olivia Daugherty launched a three-run homer in the Bearcats' final offensive frame to cut their deficit to 5-3, but Kleman regrouped and was able to finalize the win in her sixth complete game of the season.
The Bearcat home run might have resulted in a WSU loss if it weren't for the clutch hitting of Nowak. The left-handed swinging junior padded the Warrior lead to 4-0 with a two-run double in the fifth frame and added an RBI-single in the top of the seventh for insurance. Both run-scoring hits by Nowak came with two outs in the inning.
After a 2-for-4 effort against the Bearcats, Katie Kolb's squeeze bunt in the third inning of the nightcap gave WSU a 1-0 edge over Missouri Southern. The one-run lead was all Pautz would need in the circle as she produced her most dominant effort of the season.
Pautz (4-1) two-hit the Lions for her first shutout of the year after striking out 10 of the first 11 batters she faced Friday night. The sophomore right-hander has allowed just one earned run over her last 35.1 IP and lowered her season ERA to 0.50.
Van Zyl added the final run of the evening with an RBI-single that culminated an 11-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the sixth frame.
The Warriors wraps up the weekend with another twinbill on Saturday that begins with a Top-25 showdown against No. 2 University of Oklahoma at 9 a.m. WSU will face the tournament host Griffons at 11 a.m. to conclude the road trip.
