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NWC, 5 UMM 3
BLC 3, UMM 2
Duluth, Minn. – After heading into the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament as the second seed, the Minnesota Morris softball team suffered an early exit today (May 6), falling first 5-3 to Northwestern before closing the season with a 3-2 loss to Bethany Lutheran.
The Cougars wrap up 2011 with an even 18-18 overall record, the first time in program history they have tallied a .500 mark for the season.
In their first game against third-seeded Northwestern (19-20), each team scored a pair of first inning runs to head into the second all knotted up at 2-2. After the Eagles tacked on one more in the second, Cougar starter Kelli Hamilton (Delano, Minn.) would not make it out of the third as Northwestern added two more runs on four hits with just one out in the inning.
Hamilton suffered the loss after pitching just 2.1 innings, allowing seven total hits and five runs, all earned.
Kaitlyn Randall (Concord, Calif.) came in, in relief and shutout the Eagles over the final 4.2 innings, giving up just one hit while striking out 10, but the Cougars could not quite put together a comeback.
Morris was held hitless in the third and fourth and was unable to reach base before two outs were recorded in each fifth and sixth innings.
Finally a seventh-inning leadoff walk by Heidi Miller (Eden Valley, Minn.) led to a run when Diane Blommel (Grey Eagle, Minn.) doubled her home, but that was all they would get as the Cougars fell to the consolation bracket.
In their next game against fourth-seeded Bethany Lutheran (18-19), Randall got the start and again struck out 10, holding the Vikings off the board for the first five innings.
The Cougars took the game's first lead in the third when Miller led off with a single and came around to score just one batter later when Ally Obernolte doubled her home.
Morris finished with seven hits on the day, including three in the seventh, but three runs from Bethany over the sixth and seventh proved to be too much to overcome.
The Vikings took the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth, getting just one hit, but taking advantage of two Cougar errors in the inning. A dropped fly ball, a wild pitch and a throwing error early in the inning led to the rally and a two RBI double from the Vikings.
The eventual winning run came an inning later when back-to-back doubles led off the seventh.
The Cougars got back-to-back singles to the start the bottom of seventh, using a Viking fielding error to move Kristy Hoge (Aitkin, Minn.) into position for Miller to drive her home, but that was all they would get. The Cougars stranded two in the inning, leaving the winning run on base as the season ended.
Randall took the loss, ending her freshman season 11-8.
No Cougar had over two hits on the day, as seniors Blommel, Briese and Miller led the way in their final games in a Cougar uniform.
Regardless of the disappointment, 2011 will go down as the most successful season in Cougar softball history with records for overall wins, conference wins and a second place finish in the UMAC regular season.
