MANKATO, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team clinched a bid to the UMAC Tournament with a 7-3 win over Crown College on Friday afternoon. The victory puts the Cougars at 12-20 (9-10 UMAC) on the season. That conference record, combined with tiebreakers over the trailing teams, locks up the No. 4 seed for Minnesota Morris next week at a site still to be determined.

Crown actually took the lead in the bottom of the first inning and led until the fourth inning when the numerous Storm errors began to take a toll. The two innings that saw Minnesota Morris score more than one run – the fourth and the sixth – featured a combined five errors by the Crown defense. 

The Storm went up on a sacrifice fly from Liz Kemp and a RBI double from Kiara Hurt to lead, 2-0, after one. In the top of the third, Minnesota Morris plated one as Jasmine Jensen led off with a walk and was followed by a Lizzy Hanson single. A sac bunt from Anna Baumann moved each runner up a station and Sierra Stevens grounded out to bring Jensen home, leaving the score at 2-1. Crown was able to answer that with a walk and a pair of singles that brought Kemp in, regaining the two-run lead, 3-1, after three complete.

The game flipped around in the top of the fourth. With one out, Crown committed back-to-back errors that put two aboard for Autumn Theis, who then knocked in Marissa Allen to make it a 3-2 contest. A groundout from Jensen then scored Olivia Diver to knot the game up at 3-3 before the Cougars attempted a double-steal and an error from the Storm catcher brought Adrianna Johnson in for a 4-3 UMN Morris lead.

In the top of the sixth inning, Diver and Theis were aboard with two outs. On a drag bunt from Allison Pohlmann, the Crown catcher threw the ball into the outfield attempting to get the speedy senior out at first. With the ball deep in the corner, Pohlmann, along with both runners, came all the way home to make it a 7-3 game.

In the bottom of the seventh, Crown loaded the bases with one out but Abbie Carroll hit into a game-ending 5-2-3 double play.

Mollie Dummer pitched a complete game and got the win to move to 10-8 on the season. The Cougar offense was led by a 2-for-3 day from Theis.

Minnesota Morris was originally slated to play two games on Friday, however a weather delay in the afternoon pushed the entire schedule back and the Cougars will now attempt to play two against the University of Northwestern and North Central University tomorrow to wrap up the regular season. The contest with the Eagles is scheduled for 10 a.m., while the game against the Rams is set for 2 p.m., pending weather in the Mankato area.