NEW ULM, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team solidified its hold on fourth place in the UMAC standings and a possible UMAC Tournament berth with a road split against Martin Luther College on Tuesday afternoon. The Knights took the opener by a score of 6-4, but the Cougars took control early in game two and cruised to an 8-4 victory. The results of the day put Minnesota Morris at 9-16 (6-6 UMAC) on the season.

Minnesota Morris heads into the Twin Cities this weekend for four neutral-site UMAC contests. On Friday afternoon, the Cougars will face the University of Wisconsin-Superior at 12 p.m. and Northland College at 4 p.m. at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.

Game One: Martin Luther 6, Minnesota Morris 4
The first four hitters in the Martin Luther order had nine of the team's 11 hits and all six RBIs to lead the Knights to the opening win. The game went back and forth through the early innings, but a three-run fourth inning for MLC proved to be the difference.

Clean-up hitter Elena Hoffman knocked in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning to put Martin Luther ahead. That lead lasted until the third inning when Minnesota Morris leveled the score on a RBI double from Tori Nichols-Kraft that brought Olivia Diver home. The Knights took the lead back quickly in the bottom of the inning as lead-off batter Jordyn Heckendorf doubled and was followed by a double off the bat of Lisa Hoffer to make it 2-1.

Mollie Dummer led off the top of the fourth inning with a single. She was then moved along to third base by back-to-back groundouts. With two down, Jasmine Jensen singled Dummer in, knotting the score again at 2-2. 

A two-out rally from Martin Luther in the bottom of the fourth gave the home team a 5-2 lead. Minnesota Morris attempted to rally for a third time, but this time the Knights were able to hold onto their advantage. A Dummer triple and a Sarah Curtiss single in the top of the fifth brought two runs in to slice the deficit to a single run, but Martin Luther was able to end the inning with two Cougars aboard to maintain a 5-4 edge.

Despite having a couple of hits in the top of the sixth, Minnesota Morris was unable to come up with the tying run. In the bottom of the inning, Martin Luther scored an important insurance run with two down to take a 6-4 lead. The Cougars had two runners on with one out in the top of the seventh, but a pair of fielder's choice grounders finished it off.

Dummer struck out seven but took the loss for the Cougars to fall to 6-7. She led the offense with a 3-for-4 game at the plate, while Nichols-Kraft and Autumn Theis each added two hits apiece.

Game Two: Minnesota Morris 8, Martin Luther 4
A five-run second inning gave Minnesota Morris a lead it wouldn't relinquish in the second contest of the afternoon. Dummer once again went the distance, this time striking out six and allowing only one earned run to move to 7-7 with the victory.

Following 1-2-3 first innings for both pitchers, Minnesota Morris went on the attack in the top of the second. Theis led the inning off with a single. Following a fielder's choice, Marissa Allen and Jensen contributed singles to load the bases with one out. An Anna Athey sacrifice fly brought Diver home for a 1-0 lead with two down. The hits would keep coming from there as Lauren Parsons singled Allen home for a 2-0 edge. Pinch-hitter Anna Baumann then smacked a double to left to make it 3-0 before Nichols-Kraft singled in both Parsons and Baumann to leave the score at 5-0.

Dummer continued to cruise through the third inning. In the fourth and fifth innings, the teams would trade runs. An Athey triple and a Parsons RBI single made it 6-0 before Martin Luther got one run back on a Hoffman sacrifice fly to make it 6-1 entering the fifth. In that frame, Adrianna Johnson got aboard with a pinch-hit single before Allen doubled her home. Heckendorf would get the Knights back within five with a RBI double in the bottom of the inning.

Helping her own cause in the final inning, Dummer led off the seventh with a double before Allen singled her in to make it 8-2 heading to Martin Luther's half of the frame. Though a Cougar error and some uncharacteristic wildness from Dummer allowed two runs to score for the Knights, Minnesota Morris was never in any real danger as the Cougars finished it off with a groundout to third.

Allen and Parsons had three hits apiece to spearhead a 13-hit effort from UMN Morris in the game.