LEBANON, Ill. - For the first time this season, the Truman softball team was on the road for some Great Lakes Valley Conference play on Friday at McKendree. The Bulldogs took care of business in game one in six innings thanks to the run rule, 10-1, before dropping the nightcap to the Bearcats by a score of 8-2.

With the split, Truman now sits at 20-12 overall and 3-3 in the GLVC, while McKendree is looking at a record of 16-11 on the year and is also 3-3 within the league standings. For the twinbill, the Purple and White were led by Morgan McMahan who was a red-hot 5-for-6 at the dish with two runs scored, three doubles, three RBI, and eight total bases. Behind McMahan, Alyssa Rivera turned in three hits while Kadie Orenstein, Christa Reisinger, Jamie Fowle, and Lex Van Nostrand each notched two of their own.

In the first game, Truman brought across at least one run in every inning aside from the fourth. In the first, Fowle got the scoring started with a solo home run, her second of the season, Orenstein had an RBI single in the second, and Fowle pushed another across with a run-scoring double in the third. The Bulldogs would tack on two more in the third thanks to RBI doubles from both Van Nostrand and McMahan and the score was 5-0 heading to the home half of the third.

In the top of the fifth, Valerie Schmidt went yard with a two-run shot, her first blast of the season. One inning later, Ashley Murphy hit a sacrifice fly and McMahan tallied two more RBI with another double. At that point, Truman was more than in control before the home team got one back in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 10-1.

Nicolette Simpson (10-4) garnered the win and hasn't lost a decision since Feb. 26 (10 games). Simpson went the distance with six innings pitched, one earned run allowed on five hits, only one walk, and three strikeouts.

In the second game, Truman was already down 8-0 before the top of the fourth inning rolled around. The Bulldogs managed just two runs on three hits and both of those runs came in during a Schmidt flyout to right field in the top of the fourth frame. Lauren Dale (9-5) got the start before Alyssa Hajduk and Simpson both came on in relief.

Next up, the Bulldogs will be at Illinois Springfield on Sunday with first pitch in game one set for 2 p.m.

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