MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team easily took care of business on Tuesday in the team's first home games of the season, defeating North Central University by scores of 18-1 and 9-0, with each game wrapping up in a tidy five innings. The Cougars improve to 10-18 (4-6 UMAC) on the year.

Minnesota Morris will be back home on Sunday afternoon to host the University of Wisconsin-Superior in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.

Game 1: Minnesota Morris 18, North Central 1 (5 innings)
The first game of the day was essentially over after the first inning. Adrianna Johnson stranded a pair of North Central base runners in the top of the first inning and then the Cougar offense did the rest. Aided by five NCU errors, Minnesota Morris collected 10 hits and batted around twice, scoring 15 runs in the process. Everyone got in on the act, with Olivia Losee's bases-clearing triple and Olivia Diver's two-RBi double serving as highlights in the inning.

From there, it was mostly just a matter of collecting the outs needed to get North Central through the fifth. The Rams were able to score once in the top of the second, but Minnesota Morris ensured that no comeback was in store, scoring three more in the bottom of the second on an Alice Wilkinson double that drove in Autumn Theis and a Losee single that scored both Wilkinson and Anna Baumann.

The Cougars went with mass substitutions starting in the third inning and everyone got a chance to play the field down the stretch. In the fifth inning, Johnson was facing a bases-loaded situation from the Rams but struck out the final two hitters to keep North Central from scoring and end the game right there.  

Johnson struck out 10 NCU hitters in the contest and earned the complete-game victory to improve to 6-7 on the season. 

Losee went 4-for-4 at the plate with five RBIs, while five Cougars – Malena Mahoney, Johnson, Theis, Baumann, and Olivia Diver – all had two hits apiece.

Game 2: Minnesota Morris 9, North Central 0 (5 innings)
With the score reset to zeroes, North Central was much more competitive in the second game of the day. The Rams were actually outhitting Minnesota Morris, 3-1, through two innings of play, but the Cougars got rolling in the bottom of the third. 

With Sierra Stevens and Brenna Mahoney aboard, Tori Nichols hit a ground-rule double to center to bring both home for a 2-0 lead. Theis later singled in Nichols. As the inning continued, an error from North Central kept the inning going and Losee was once again able to bring three runners in with one swing of the bat, upping the Minnesota Morris lead to 6-0. An Olivia Diver single then drove in Losee for a seventh Cougar run before the Rams could get out of the inning.

Johnson led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single and moved up a station on a NCU error. Coming up after her, Baumann lined a ball into right field and up against the fence. With the ball staying in play and speed on the base paths, Baumann raced around for an inside-the-park home run that made it 9-0 after four. Morgan Wilhelm finished it off with a 1-2-3 top of the fifth to bring the day to a close.

Nichols and Anna Athey had two hits each in this contest. Wilhelm (3-7) allowed only four hits and struck out four in the shutout victory.