PLYMOUTH, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team earned a split of a doubleheader against Concordia College (MN) on Friday, rallying from a 4-2 deficit in the eighth inning of the second game to win, 5-4. The Cougars move to 1-3 on the season.
Minnesota Morris will be back in Plymouth, Minn. next week on March 11 to face Crown College in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m.
Game One: Concordia (MN) 7, Minnesota Morris 2
Concordia started fast on Friday, pushing three runs across in the top of the first inning and stranding 10 Minnesota Morris runners to take a 7-2 victory in the opener.
Adrianna Johnson (0-1) took the loss for the Cougars.
A lead-off single followed by back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the first gave the Cobbers a 2-0 lead. An RBI single made it 3-0 before Johnson could escape the first inning.
In the bottom of the third, Concordia added onto its lead with a two-out, two-RBI single against
Tori Nichols-Kraft. Minnesota Morris was able to cut into the lead in the top of the fifth when Nichols-Kraft led off with a walk and
Olivia Diver doubled. From there,
Lydia Mann singled to bring them both home, making it 5-2. The Cobbers answered back with another two-out RBI single in the bottom half of the inning to reestablish their five-run lead.
UMN Morris had its only 1-2-3 inning at the plate in the sixth and Mann's single was all the offense could muster in the seventh as Concordia closed out the win.
Mann and
Eleanore Steinhouse each collected two hits as part of a seven-hit effort from the Minnesota Morris offense.
Game Two: Minnesota Morris 5, Concordia (MN) 4 (8 innings)
UMN Morris scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to force extra innings and then repeated the feat with three runs in the bottom of the eighth to defeat the Cobbers in the second game of the day.
Mollie Dummer went the distance to earn the win, striking out six and allowing four runs (three earned) to improve to 1-1 on the year.
It took until the fourth inning for either team to score. Concordia was aggressive on the base paths with three stolen bases in the inning and it paid off with a sacrifice fly and single that each scored a run to make it 2-0.
That advantage held up until the sixth inning when Steinhouse led off with a single and Diver drew a one-out walk. The next batter,
Autumn Theis, drove them both in with a double to knot the score at 2-2. After each team put a runner in scoring position in the seventh but came up empty, the game was off to extra innings.
With international rules in place and a runner on second to start the inning, the Cobbers scored a pair in the top of the eighth on singles to take a 4-2 lead. Steinhouse started the bottom of the eighth on second and Nichols-Kraft drew a lead-off walk. After that, an error on a sacrifice bunt from Diver brought Steinhouse home and moved Nichols-Kraft to third. Mann drove her home with a single between shortstop and third base. With Diver on third and one down, a wild pitch allowed the sophomore to scamper home and give the Cougars the walk-off victory.
Theis and Mann led the Cougar offense in the second game of the day with two hits apiece.
