MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team split its road doubleheader at North Central University on Wednesday afternoon. The Cougars won the first game of the day against the Rams, 9-3, before falling by a score of 9-5 to finish things off. UMN Morris is now 8-13 (5-3 UMAC) on the season.

Bad weather this weekend up in Superior, Wis. has changed around the schedule once again and the Cougars and UW-Superior will now meet tomorrow at the West St. Paul Dome starting at 12 p.m.

Game One: Minnesota Morris 9, North Central 3
The Cougars were charged with one error in the opening game of the day and it came in the bottom of the first inning, allowing a North Central run to score. It was all Minnesota Morris after that, with the Cougars putting up six runs in the top of the third and later sealing it by scoring a run in each of their final three turns on offense.

The top of the third inning began with the top of the Minnesota Morris order and Sierra Stevens doubled to start the Cougars off on the right foot. An Olivia Diver RBI single followed that, tying the score up at 1-1. With the bases loaded, Dummer helped her own cause by hitting a double to left that plated two more runs. The big blow in the inning came from the next hitter in the order, Marissa Allen. Her three-run homer to right scored three and staked UMN Morris to a 6-1 lead.

The Rams answered back in the bottom of the third, loading the bases with no outs before a one-out double scored two runs to bring NCU back to within three, 6-3. Dummer escaped further damage with a lineout to Jasmine Jensen at short and a groundball out to Tori Nichols-Kraft. The Cougars finagled their way out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fourth as well before the offense got rolling in the late innings.

In the fifth inning, a double from Jensen set up Lauren Parsons for an RBI single to make it 7-3. Diver started off the sixth inning with a triple before Autumn Theis brought her in with a RBI groundout. In the top of the seventh, Minnesota Morris added one more insurance run with a single from Stevens that brought pinch-runner Anna Bauman in for a 9-3 advantage. 

Dummer managed to work around some control issues and went the whole way for her seventh complete game of the season, improving to 6-5. The Cougars belted out 14 hits, with Diver going 3-for-4 and Stevens, Nichols-Kraft, Dummer, and Allen all collecting two hits each.

Game Two: North Central 9, Minnesota Morris 5
The M.O. for UMN Morris in many doubleheaders so far during UMAC play is to fall behind early and then rally dramatically late in the game. The Cougars did the falling behind part in Wednesday's second game but came up short with the late-game heroics. 

North Central opened the game by scoring three times in the bottom of the first. Minnesota Morris came back in the top of the second with a lead-off double from Allen, a bunt single from Jensen, and a RBI groundout from Anna Athey to leave the game at 3-1. Two more runs in the top of the third for the Cougars, including a RBI single from Allen, knotted the score up at 3-3.

A two-out grand slam from Brooke McGlinche in the bottom of the third gave the Rams the lead for good. Minnesota Morris was able to cut the four-run deficit in half by scoring twice in the top of the fourth, but the offense dried up after that and North Central restored the four-run advantage with a pair of runs in the fifth inning to lock things up.

Grace Penke took the loss on the evening for the Cougars, throwing 3.0 innings in relief of Abby Wothe. Allen had another productive game at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a RBI and a run scored.