CLERMONT, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team earned its first win of the season on Sunday as part of a 1-1 day. The Cougars capitalized on seven Capital University errors in a 12-3 victory in the first game of the morning. Later on, Hood College posted seven runs in the ninth inning to come away with an 8-2 win.

Minnesota Morris has its scheduled off day tomorrow before returning to action on March 15 with contests against Macalester College (10:15 a.m. EDT) and Meredith College (12:30 p.m. EDT).

Minnesota Morris 12, Capital 3
It would be tough to imagine a better start to a day than the nine runs that Minnesota Morris hung on Capital in the top of the first inning on Sunday morning. Behind five hits, six walks, and two Comet errors, the Cougars gifted Mollie Dummer a large lead before she had even entered the circle. 

The first run came on a double steal with Tori Nichols-Kraft heading to second and Sierra Stevens rushing home. Later, with two on, Marissa Allen doubled to right field to bring both Nichols-Kraft and Dummer home. Olivia Diver followed with a single up the middle to plate Adrianna Johnson. Grace Penke drove in another run on a fielder's choice ground ball, but a Capital error on the play allowed two to score. Back to the top of the order, Stevens drove in Penke with her second hit of the inning to make it 7-0 and Jasmine Jensen then executed another double steal with Stevens that ended with a second Capital error to bring Stevens in for an 8-0 lead. A ninth run of the frame came in on a passed ball before the Comets could register the third out.

An error and a double did allow Capital to get one run back in the bottom of the first, followed by a two-run third inning to make it 9-3, but Minnesota Morris was threatened any further. Dummer pitched into the fourth inning before giving way to Penke who got the Cougars out of a bases-loaded situation before going the rest of the way with just a single base-runner off of a UMN Morris error.

The Cougars grew their lead in the fifth with a RBI single from Nichols-Kraft to drive home Stevens, then a two-run single from Dummer in the seventh to score Stevens and Jensen.

Dummer picked up the win to move to 1-2 on the season, striking out four with no walks in 3.2 innings. Penke went 3.1 innings and had no Capital batters reach other than via an error. Stevens went 4-for-5 from the lead-off spot with four runs scored. Dummer also had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

Hood 8, Minnesota Morris 2 (9 innings)
Nothing separated Minnesota Morris and Hood through eight innings, but the Blazers exploded in the ninth with seven runs to push the game out of reach.

After two scoreless innings to start, Hood took the lead in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly to go ahead, 1-0. In the bottom of the fifth, Diver led off with a walk and went to second on a single from Lauren Parsons. Hood then had an error in the outfield which allowed Diver to run home and knot the score up at 1-1.

With neither team able to score through the seventh inning, the game proceeded to extra innings which were played under international rules with a runner placed on second to start each inning. Both defenses held in the eighth and the contest moved to the ninth where things went downhill quickly for the Cougars. A passed ball moved the runner to third with no outs and Hood took the lead on a sac fly to make it 2-1. Three straight singles followed and with two outs and the bases still loaded, a triple cleared them and gave Hood a 5-1 advantage. Consecutive home runs followed, first increasing it to 7-1 and then 8-1. 

Anna Baumann was placed on second to start the bottom of the ninth and she moved to third on a grounder from Diver before being driven home on a groundout from Anna Athey, however that wasn't enough to move the game along further.

Despite nearly throwing a complete game, Autumn Theis took the loss for the Cougars after going 8.2 innings and giving up the damage in the ninth for Hood. Minnesota Morris collected just four hits against Hood pitcher Rebecca Gottleib. Those came off the bats of Nichols-Kraft, Dummer, Allen, and Parsons.