ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team split the spoils with Crown College in a UMAC doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon. The Cougars jumped ahead early in the first game and won, 8-3, before dropping a 5-3 decision in game two. Minnesota Morris is now 9-17 (5-5 UMAC) on the season.
The Cougars come back home on Saturday to host Bethany Lutheran College in a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.
Game One: Minnesota Morris 8, Crown 3
Four runs in the first inning and a complete game from
Mollie Dummer (6-6) got Minnesota Morris the victory in the first game of the afternoon. Dummer struck out six and scattered 12 hits across 7.0 innings to pick up the win.
A two-out error with the bases loaded in the first inning brought in a run and, more importantly, kept the inning alive for Minnesota Morris. Following that error, Dummer singled and then advanced on a second Crown error while all three runners –
Morgan Mathews,
Olivia Diver, and
Autumn Theis – came around for a 4-0 lead.
The Storm pulled one run back in the bottom of the second, but Minnesota Morris responded in the top of the fourth with a two-out triple from
Tori Nichols-Kraft to bring
Eleanore Steinhouse around to score, making it 5-1.
A lead-off walk by
Adrianna Johnson followed by four hits in the top of the sixth put three more runs on the board for Minnesota Morris and essentially ended any hopes Crown had for a comeback. Nichols-Kraft tripled for a second time to score Johnson and
Lydia Mann. Theis followed that with a single to bring Nichols-Kraft home for an 8-1 edge.
Crown pulled two runs back in the bottom of the sixth, but went down in order in the bottom of the seventh as Dummer closed it out.
Nichols-Kraft ended the game 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs. Theis and Mathews each collected two hits apiece.
Game Two: Crown 5, Minnesota Morris 3
After a hectic first three innings, the second game of the day saw both offenses struggle to put anything together late in the game and Crown was able to hold onto the lead it had built. Dummer was charged with the loss to fall to 6-7 after getting the win earlier in the afternoon.
Mann led the game off with a triple and Nichols-Kraft drove her in with a single two batters later to give Minnesota Morris a quick 1-0 lead. Crown tied the score within the first two batters in the bottom of the inning with a single and a double, then took the lead on a RBI single to go up, 2-1, after the first inning.
A sacrifice fly for Crown in the second grew the margin to 3-1 before the Cougars came back with a pair of runs in the top of the third to even things up.
Sarah Curtiss led off with a single and she scored on a Mann double down the line. With Mann on third following a wild pitch, Nichols-Kraft again singled her home before a double play ended the threat.
Dummer retired the first two batters in the bottom of the third, but a single and a double with two outs set the stage for Zeta Brown to then single in the go-ahead run.
Both offenses mostly dried up after that, with a two-out RBI single from Crown's Ally Adams in the bottom of the fifth being the exception. Minnesota Morris had one good opportunity to force its way back into the contest. In the top of the sixth, the Cougars had the bases loaded with one down, but Lindsay Glover struck out consecutive hitters to end the inning and UMN Morris did nothing in the seventh following a lead-off single from Curtiss.
Dummer went 5.0 innings before giving way to
Autumn Theis who worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning. Nichols-Kraft and Mathews each had three-hit games for the Cougars, with Mann and Curtiss collecting two hits each.
