The Wayne State softball team traveled to Springfield, Missouri, this past weekend to play at the Drury Invitational Softball Tournament against non-conference opponents. WSC went 0-6 on the weekend falling to 5-10 on the year.

“This weekend was tough for a lot of reasons, but as a team we are continuing to work as a family towards our goals,” sophomore outfielder Kortney Buresh said. “There is still a lot of fight in our team.

In the first five games of the tournament WSC fell 0-12 to Drury University, 3-8 to Southwest Baptist, 10-11 to Northwest Missouri State, 0-11 to William Jewell College and 4-11 to Northeastern State.

In the final game of the tournament Wayne State fell to the host team Drury University Sunday afternoon at 1:45 in five innings 2-10.

WSC started off the game well scoring in the top of the first inning as Kim Vidlak singled to right field and later scored on an Ashley Hernandez single to take an early 1-0 lead.

Drury responded with three runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back and then went on to score an additional four runs in the third to take a 7-1 lead of the Wildcats.

WSC scored one more run on the frame in the fourth inning as Hernandez singled to start the inning and touched home plate on an RBI groundout from freshmen infielder Paiton Tornberg. Drury went on the score three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to increase the lead to 10-2. The Panthers were able to hold Wayne State at 2 runs for the rest of the contest.

Sophomore pitcher Makenna Adkison (0-2) suffered the pitching loss in 2 1/3 innings of work while freshmen pitcher Sloan Cooksey worked relief in the remaining 1 2/3 innings.

WSC had five hits in the contest lead by Hernandez going 2 for 2 with an RBI and run scored. Vidlak singled and scored the other Wildcat run.

“Although last weekend did not go as planned, we know what we are capable of and we just have to keep working and show it in our games,” sophomore catcher Kamryn Sparks said. “There are still a lot of games left in the season to show what we are made of.”

Wayne State softball will be back in action Sunday, March 8, at the National Training Center Spring Games in Clermont, Florida. The Wildcats will play two non-conference games against California (Pa.) at 1:45 and Dominican College of New York at 4 p.m.

“We are excited to travel to Florida over spring break for our final non-conference tournament to play teams from across the country.

Wayne State will start conference play Tuesday, March 24, at home against NSIC South Division opponent Augustana University.

“We start our conference play soon against one of our rivals Auggie, who are also the defending National DII Champions, so it will be crucial that we play well in next weekend’s set of games in Florida. I think as long as we are competitive I think we can prove a lot of people wrong,” Sparks said.