MANKATO, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team was handed a 13-0 loss in five innings in the opening game of the afternoon on Tuesday against Bethany Lutheran College. The Cougars were more competitive in game two, but still fell by a score of 8-4. The losses sink UMN Morris to 7-15 (1-3 UMAC) for the season.

Minnesota Morris heads to St. Bonifacius, Minn. this weekend where Crown College will host the first crossover weekend of the UMAC season. The Cougars open with two games on Friday afternoon, facing Northland College at 12 p.m. and the University of Wisconsin-Superior at 4 p.m.

Game One: Bethany Lutheran 13, Minnesota Morris 0 (5 innings)
A fairly close game was turned on its head in the fifth inning when Bethany Lutheran scored 10 runs to end the contest after five innings. A struggling Minnesota Morris then missed two more chances to try to crack BLC pitcher Kayla Senne as she finished with a no-hitter.

Errors were at the center of the result in game one for the Cougars. Bethany Lutheran jumped out on top, 2-0, in the first inning on two errors from the Minnesota Morris defense. A solo home run from Haley Stockman in the top of the fourth made it 3-0.

Things unraveled in the fifth for Minnesota Morris with Bethany Lutheran collecting seven hits and using four more Cougar errors to score 10 times for an insurmountable lead. 

Adrianna Johnson was charged with the loss in the game, falling to 5-6 on the year.

Game Two: Bethany Lutheran 8, Minnesota Morris 4
With Senne working again in the second game of the day, Minnesota Morris was finally able to string together some hits and get on the board against the Viking ace, but Bethany Lutheran zoomed ahead, 4-0, and the Cougars were never able to make up the deficit.

The scoring began with three runs (two unearned) by the Vikings in the top of the second inning and Emily Doyle tacked on another run with a solo shot in the top of the third for a 4-0 advantage.

Minnesota Morris cut the BLC lead in half in the bottom of the third with a RBI single from Tori Nichols to drive home Sierra Stevens and a sacrifice bunt from Anna Athey that plated Alice Wilkinson.

Bethany Lutheran responded with two more runs in the top of the fifth, though the Cougars were again able to score in the bottom of the inning with a Viking error opening the door for Brenna Mahoney to single in Nichols, leaving the score at 6-3.

The Vikings had three straight hits to start the seventh inning, pushing two more insurance runs home to take an 8-3 lead. Down to their final three outs, the Cougars were able to score once with Navaeh Polanco drawing a walk, moving up on a wild pitch and a Brenna Mahoney single, and finally scoring on another wild pitch before Senne finished things off.

Brenna Mahoney had a 3-for-4 game at the plate and Nichols added two hits, with both players driving in a run. Morgan Wilhelm (2-6) went the whole way and struck out four, but allowed 12 BLC hits, though three of the runs allowed in the game were unearned.