Katie Armagost managed to settle down and find her rhythm after allowing a single, hitting a batter, and then walking a batter to load the bases early in the game.

Armagost went on to pitch six-consecutive shutout innings, striking out four batters, in the Wichita State softball team’s game-one win in its preseason doubleheader against Butler County Community College, 2-1.

“Smooth sailing after that,” Armagost said. “The first game we started out kind of slow. Their pitcher was good and we settled in. It was an evenly matched game and we got a few breaks here and there.”

The senior pitcher used the game to perfect her drop-ball pitch, a pitch she worked on during the summer.

“I’m a drop-ball pitcher and that showed in that game and my defense had my back the whole time,” she said.

Armagost’s performance would turn out to be the highlight of the evening for the Shockers.

Butler defeated the Shockers 9-7 in game two of the doubleheader, featuring a back-and-forth affair between both offenses.

After going up 3-0, Butler scored five runs in the fifth inning. Sloan Anderson, pitching in the second game, had all sorts of trouble getting out of the inning, facing 11 batters.

The Shockers then scored four runs in the bottom of the inning for a 7-5 lead. In the inning, Haley Temple drove in two of her four runs for the game.

A series of fielding errors hurt the Shockers—five were committed during the game, which led to three unearned runs.

“There were a lot of mental mistakes on defense and we fell apart, but it’s the fall season, so it’s a learning experience,” Armagost said.

The Shockers will travel to Stillwater, Okla., to play a doubleheader starting with Tulsa at 1 p.m. and then Oklahoma State at 3 p.m.