COCOA, Fla. – Macomb Softball opened the lid on the 2023 season with a 4-0 victory over the Culver-Stockton Reserves before falling in the nightcap to a veteran Bryant & Stratton-Wisconsin team by a 6-3 final tally. The Monarchs will be back in action tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. at Melbourne's Space Coast Complex.

GAME ONE: Macomb 4, Culver-Stockton Reserves 0
Freshman right-handed pitcher Allison Vogt (Chesterfield, Mich./Anchor Bay) was brilliant in her collegiate debut on her way to earning a complete-game shutout to help lift the Monarchs to a 4-0 season-opening victory. Vogt scattered six hits across a full seven innings of work and struck out nine batters to cap off a successful day in the circle.

Vogt received run support early as the Monarchs brought a run across in the first inning when freshman catcher Brynn Beyer (Macomb, Mich./L'Anse Creuse North) drove in Danielle Erickson (Sterling Heights, Mich./Sterling Heights) on a double to left field. The RBI double was the Monarchs first extra-base hit of the 2023 campaign. Erickson singled one batter earlier to setup the Beyer RBI double and the 1-0 early lead.

The Monarchs plated another run in the second and two more in the third to account for their four runs in the contest. Freshman outfielder Savanna Clark (St. Clair, Mich./St. Clair) brought Rylee Thomas (Harrison Twp., Mich./L'Anse Creuse) in to score with a RBI single to left field to give the Monarchs a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Thomas got the inning started with her first of two doubles on the afternoon.

The rest of the scoring happened in the two-run third as Thomas singled home Elizabeth Townsend (New Baltimore, Mich./Anchor Bay) to make it 3-0 before Alexis Murray (Clinton Twp, Mich./Chippewa Valley) scored later in the inning for the Monarchs' fourth and final run of Sunday's first game.

Beyer, Clark and Thomas led the offensive charge with two hits and a RBI each. The combination of Beyer, Thomas and Townsend recorded a double each.

GAME TWO: Bryant & Stratton Wisc. 6, Macomb 3
A four-run sixth inning by the Bobcats of Bryant & Stratton-Wisconsin would be the difference in the nightcap as the Monarchs fell in a hard-fought contest, 6-3. The Monarchs plated two runs in the first before the bats cooled off the rest of the way. The Bobcats plated one in the first and evened the game at 2-2 in the home half of the third inning. After two-and-a-half scoreless innings, the Bobcats erupted for a four-run sixth to take a 6-2 lead.

The Monarchs scored a run in top of the seventh and brought the game-tying run to the plate before falling by the 6-3 final.

Rylee Thomas and Elizabeth Townsend paced the Monarch attack with two runs and a RBI each, while Savanna Clark, Danielle Erickson and Carly Sierzenga (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) accounted for a hit each.

UP NEXT
The Monarchs will take on Bryant & Stratton-Wisconsin tomorrow morning for the second of three meetings between the teams this week. First pitch is slated for 11:30 a.m. at the Space Coast Complex in Melbourne, Fla. The second game of the day has the Monarchs going up against a fellow Michigan school, Cornerstone University, at 4:30 p.m. Both games will feature a live stream via the Space Coast Games on usssalive.com (subscription required to watch).