MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team came out on the wrong end of two close contests with Bethany Lutheran College on Saturday, falling to the Vikings by a score of 10-7 in eight innings in the first game and then by a score of 6-5 in the nightcap. The losses send the Cougars to 9-19 (5-7 UMAC) on the year.
Minnesota Morris will now have its longest break in the action in quite some time, not competing again until May 1 at the College of St. Scholastica for a UMAC doubleheader that starts at 3:30 p.m.
Game One: Bethany Lutheran 10, Minnesota Morris 7 (8 innings)
A promising start to the game for Minnesota Morris fell apart in the late innings as Bethany Lutheran scored three runs in each of its final three turns at the plate.
Lydia Mann led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run, her third of the season. That was followed by three more runs for the Cougars in the bottom of the second on a bases-loaded walk to
Morgan Mathews and a
Tori Nichols-Kraft single that plated a pair.
That 4-0 lead held up until the fifth when Bethany Lutheran put its first run on the board, but that was quickly answered by a run for Minnesota Morris in the bottom half of the inning. In a 4-1 ballgame,
Olivia Diver singled up the middle with two down and she was driven home by a double from
Mollie Dummer to make it 5-1.
Things began to take a turn in the sixth inning as the Vikings pushed three runs across and would have tied the game at 5-5 if not for an inning-ending out at home plate. Bethany Lutheran then hit a two-run home run in the seventh as part of a three-run inning to go up, 7-5. The Cougars roared back with two in the bottom of the seventh to keep the game alive. Dummer brought
Sarah Curtiss home with a RBI single to cut the lead in half. With two down and the bases loaded, Mathews worked a base on balls to score
Anna Baumann and send the game to extras.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, Bethany Lutheran was able to score three more runs in the top of the eighth, all with two outs in the inning. UMN Morris was unable mount much of a comeback in its turn at the plate and the Vikings held on for the win.
Diver, Dummer, and Nichols-Kraft all had three hits in the game for the Cougars. Dummer took the loss to fall to 6-8 on the season.
Game Two: Bethany Lutheran 6, Minnesota Morris 5
The second game of the day went back and forth, but Bethany Lutheran pulled ahead in the top of the sixth and Minnesota Morris was unable to rally back for a second time.
Once again, the game started promisingly for Minnesota Morris. After a double play brought an end to the top of the first, the Cougars scored twice in the bottom half. Diver and
Eleanore Steinhouse each had RBI singles to score Nichols-Kraft and Dummer.
Bethany Lutheran responded with a run in the top of the second before exploding for four runs in the top of the third on five hits and a Minnesota Morris error. Only a bases-loaded popout to end the inning kept things from getting worse than the 5-2 deficit that the Cougars found themselves in.
In the bottom of the fourth, a Nichols-Kraft double with two outs in the inning brought Mann and Mathews home to make it a one-run game. With Nichols-Kraft in scoring position, Dummer doubled her home to knot the score back up at 5-5.
A lead-off walk and a Minnesota Morris error in the sixth inning opened the door to a go-ahead infield single from Bethany Lutheran to take a 6-5 lead. The Cougars were shut down offensively from there, going down in order in both the sixth and the seventh innings to end the game.
The 3-4-5 hitters for the Cougars led the offense in game two as Nichols-Kraft, Dummer, and Diver all collected two hits apiece. Nichols-Kraft was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-5 on the season.
