HAYS, Kan. – The Fort Hays State University Tigers completed a doubleheader sweep of the Northwest Missouri State University softball team.
 
The Tigers gained a five-inning 11-3 win in game one and followed it up with a 4-3 victory in the second game. FHSU improved to 20-6 overall and 5-1 in the MIAA. Northwest dipped to 12-19 overall and 2-8 in league action.
 
GAME ONE
Fort Hays State scored an 11-3 victory in five innings to open the doubleheader.
 
FHSU pounded out 14 hits, while Northwest was held to five base hits. Bearcat starter Cassidy Paulson took the loss in the circle to fall to 2-4 on the season.
 
Northwest took an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first. Skylar Pieper drove in Lillie Filger with an RBI double to right center for the first furn. Malia Cuevas ground out to first to bring home Omara Love for the second run.
 
The Tigers scored the game's next eight runs with four in the first, two in the second, one in the third and one more in the fourth.
 
Love tripled home Filger in the fifth to slice the FHSU lead to 8-3. However, FHSU added three runs in the fifth to close out the 11-3 victory.
 
Filger went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
 
 
GAME TWO
Fort Hays State held off Northwest with a 4-3 win in the second game to sweep the doubleheader.
 
The Tigers plated two runs in the second to take a 2-0 lead in game two.
 
Northwest's Grace Lubben launched her third homer run of the season with a two-out solo blast to right center to cut the FHSU lead in half to 2-1.
 
The Tigers took advantage of a two-out error in the fourth to add two more runs to push the lead to 4-1.
 
Northwest battled back in the top of the fifth. Leadoff singles from Curstin Todd and Alexis Brown set the Bearcats up to score. Filger bunted them to second and third before Skylar Pieper delivered a two-out RBI double to left to score them both and pull the Bearcats to within 4-3.
 
Following Pieper's double, the next seven Bearcats were retired on order and FHSU hung on for the 4-3 victory.
 
Lubben went 2-for-3 with a run and RBI. Pieper led the 'Cats with two RBI.
 
Streigle went the distance in the circle for her third complete game this season. Streigle fell to 3-6 on the season. She allowed six hits and four runs (one earned) with four strikeouts. Streigle did not walk any of the 28 batters she faced.
 
Northwest will be back home this weekend for a Friday doubleheader against Central Oklahoma beginning at 2 p.m. The Bearcats will also play host to Newman Saturday at 12 p.m. for doubleheader action.
 
NOTES: Lillie Filger tallied three in the doubleheader to move into Northwest's top-10 list for career hits … Filger has posted 192 hits in 135 games as a Bearcat … Filger is looking to become only the eighth Bearcat softball player to reach 200 or more hits … Filger has 16 multi-hit games this season and 64 in her Bearcat career … Lubben tallied her fourth multi-hit game of the season with two hits in the second game … Streigle has tallied 28 career complete games in the circle.