The Prairie Stars softball team faced GLVC rival Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri on April 23 and William Jewell in Liberty, Missouri on April 24, splitting both two-game series.

Game one against Rockhurst ended in a 2-0 victory. Alexandria Smith led the team pitching a complete-game shutout en route to her eighth win of the season.

After a bunt by Alexa McClaughry in the second inning and an error committed by Rockhurst, Amanda Gosbeth was able to make it to home and score to take the early lead. The inning ended with McClaughry getting caught stealing second base.

Neither team scored again until the top of the seventh when Gosbeth once again reached home plate after a sacrifice bunt by Haley Inman and another error by Rockhurst. The game ended with a total of four hits by both teams and two costly errors by Rockhurst.

Rockhurst took game two by a score of 6-1. No runs were scored until the third inning, when Rockhurst managed to get three players across home plate.

Gabbie Boerema’s homer allowed Kelsey Dean and Madison Wagner to score giving Rockhurst the lead with a three-RBI play.

Boerema didn’t stop there as she hit her second homer of the day in the fifth inning, resulting in two more runs as she brought Megan Freitag home.

UIS failed to score until the sixth inning, when Brittany Miller homered to center field. Jaycee Craver picked up the loss for the Stars as she gave up five earned runs off of six hits during her four innings pitched. Smith pitched two innings and gave up one hit and one earned run.

On April 24, UIS traveled to William Jewell needing a sweep in order to make the GLVC Softball Championship Tournament. However, a first-game 9-1 loss ended the Stars’ postseason hopes.

UIS jumped out to a one-run lead in the third inning of the game after Madi Torry singled to left field, which resulted in McClaughry crossing the plate.

But William Jewell responded convincingly in the fifth by scoring four runs. The Cardinals furthered their lead in the sixth by scoring five runs off of three home runs.

William Jewell finished with seven hits, compared to just two for UIS. Smith took the loss for the Stars after allowing seven hits and six earned runs during five innings pitched.

UIS ended their season with a 2-0 victory in the second game against William Jewell.

The game was scoreless until the ninth inning, when Rachel Goff doubled to right center in the ninth inning, allowing Molly Manietta to score.

A wild pitch thrown by William Jewell’s Shelby McGraw resulted in another UIS run as McClaughry crossed home plate.

The Prairie Stars finished at 24-26, winning 14 of their last 18 games to close out the season.