MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team got back into action for the first time in more than two weeks on Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of Crown College to start UMAC play. The Cougars defeated the Storm, 11-3, in six innings to start the day off. In the second game, UMN Morris went behind by five runs before making a comeback in the late stages of the game to claim a 7-5 victory. The two wins moves the Cougars to 5-10 (2-0 UMAC) on the season.

Minnesota Morris continues conference play on Tuesday afternoon with a trip to Mankato to face Bethany Lutheran College starting at 3:30 p.m.

Game One: Minnesota Morris 11, Crown 3 (6 innings)
Matters were settled more or less in the first inning in the opening game of the doubleheader on Saturday. Minnesota Morris scored eight runs in the bottom of the first after there were two outs, putting Crown in a hole it could never dig out of.

Mollie Dummer got the start in game one and struck out a pair in the top of the first. She then delivered a two-out RBI single to score Lizzy Hanson and Autumn Theis for a 2-0 lead in the first at-bat for the Cougars. Two batters later, Jasmine Jensen notched an RBI single to bring Dumer home. Carly Mahoney followed that with a RBI single to plate Olivia Diver for a 4-0 lead. The Cougars weren't even close to being finished as Anna Athey singled and then advanced on the throw, bringing Jensen home to make it 5-0. A walk to Sierra Stevens that ended in a wild pitch allowed Carly Mahoney to score to make it 6-0. Hanson, back up to the plate for a second time in the inning, had a single to score Stevens and Athey for an 8-0 advantage.

Given that large lead, the rest of the game was mostly a matter of counting down the outs. Dummer struck out the side in the second inning and also worked a 1-2-3 inning in the third. Crown got on the board in the fourth with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-1. Minnesota Morris answered with a Dummer triple that brought Lauren Parsons home. Diver was next up and a sacrifice fly to right scored Dummer for a 10-1 lead.

Crown scored twice in the top of the fifth inning to keep the game alive for a little longer, but Minnesota Morris brought the run-rule into effect in the bottom of the sixth. Diver started it with a ground-rule double to center field. Pinch-hitter Grace Penke then delivered a single back up the middle for an 11-3 final.

Dummer went the whole way in the first game, earning the win to go to 3-4 while striking out 11 Storm hitters. Offensively, Dummer, Hanson, Diver, and Jensen all had two hits in the contest.

Game Two: Minnesota Morris 7, Crown 5 
The second game started off far differently for the two sides as Crown scored all five of its runs in the top of the first. With Storm starting pitcher Abbie Carroll flummoxing the Cougar hitters, Crown appeared to be on track for a win before a late comeback from Minnesota Morris saw the Cougars overtake the Storm in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Though only one run was earned, Crown struck for all five of its runs in the top of the first inning against Penke, the starter in game two for Minnesota Morris. Abbie Carroll, getting her first action of the season on the bump for the Storm, proceeded to retire the first seven Cougar hitters, getting through the first three innings while maintaining that 5-0 advantage.

As the game moved along, there was a noticeable shift in the habits of the Cougar hitters against the deliberately-working Carroll. Minnesota Morris came to the plate looking to jump on Carroll early in the count and it finally began to pay dividends in the bottom of the fourth. Diver started the inning with a single, followed by a ground-rule double from Tori Nichols-Kraft. Autumn Theis and Dummer would collect RBIs before the inning was done, making the score 5-2.

The comeback continued in the bottom of the fifth. Following consecutive singles from Athey and Stevens to lead off the inning, back-to-back sacrifice flies from Diver and Nichols-Kraft made it 5-4.

Following a second straight 1-2-3 inning from Dummer, on in relief, the Cougars completed their comeback in the bottom of the sixth. Penke started things off with a double and Jensen had an infield single to put runners on the corners before she went to second on a wild pitch. Though Crown was able to retire a pair of batters, the Storm were not out of the woods yet. With two away, Stevens worked a walk to load the bases and Diver tripled with a ball into right field, clearing the bases for a 7-5 edge.

From there, Minnesota Morris needed just three more outs. Working around an error with one away, the Cougars finished things off with two straight flyouts to the outfield and earned the victory.

Dummer went the final 3.0 innings and struck out four without allowing a hit, picking up her second win of the day to move to 4-4 on the season. Diver, Theis, and Penke had two hits in the back-half of the doubleheader for the Cougars.