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| UMM 8, NWC 7 | UMM 10, CROWN 1 | Season Stats |
Ashland, Wis. – With their two wins at the UMAC Crossover on Apr. 27 – beating Northwestern 8-7 and Crown 10-1 – the Minnesota Morris softball team secured the second seed in the upcoming UMAC Tournament.
Morris (16-16, 13-6 UMAC) enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed for the second straight year, after earning the first second-place finish since joining the UMAC last season. With two games left, the Cougars still have a chance to tie the records set last season, for wins in season with 18, and UMAC wins with 15.
In the first game of the day against Northwestern (15-20, 10-8 UMAC) the Cougars held a 6-1 lead heading into the sixth, and had been in charge all game. The Eagles completely erased the deficit and took their first lead with six runs in the inning, taking a 7-1 lead with just one-and-a-half left to play.
In the sixth, though, the Cougars were up to the challenge, as
Kelsey Draper drove home the game-tying and game-winning runs with her two RBI double to right.
There were no such dramatics against Crown (0-24, 0-19 UMAC) as Cougars took a 2-1 lead after the first and never looked back. Morris added three runs in the third, and five on just three hits in the fourth to lock up the 10-1 win in just five innings.
Kelli Hamilton pitched the complete game, allowing just five hits, while striking out four. After allowing the lone first inning run, she shut out the Storm for the final four innings.
Hamiton just carried on the trend from game one where Essig won for the 10th time in the year, including the eighth time in her last nine starts.
Olson saw her hitting streak continue, running to 23 straight games, as she went 5-for-7 on the day, moving above the .500 mark on the year.
Jordan Iverson was nearly as impressive, finishing 4-for-6 in the two games with four runs scored and her fifth homerun of the year, staying among the UMAC leaders.
Along with Cougars locking up the No. 2 seed, St. Scholastica clinched the regular season championship on the day, leaving Northland, Northwestern and Bethany Lutheran to vie for the final two spots.
The Cougars wrap up conference play Apr. 28 with a 10:00 a.m. match-up with Northland and a 2:00 p.m. tilt with St. Scholastica.
