NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team won their third and fourth straight games on Sunday morning to wrap up play at the Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic. The Cougars eked out a 9-8 victory over Keene State College in 10 innings in the day's opener before holding off Vermont State University-Castleton, 5-2, to wrap up the trip to South Carolina with a 10-9 overall record.

Minnesota Morris will now face a gauntlet of 21 UMAC contests the rest of the way through the regular season. The Cougars begin conference action on March 22-23 with a three-game series at Crown College. The first game with the Polars is slated for Friday afternoon in St. Bonifacius at 3:30 p.m.

Minnesota Morris 9, Keene State 8 (10 innings)
After seeing a 5-0 lead disappear in the middle innings and then the game extended again after putting two runs on the board in the top of the eighth, Minnesota Morris held off Keene State in the 10th inning behind relief pitcher Alyssa Thornton (4-3).

Consecutive walks from Sierra Stevens and Mary Landherr with the bases loaded gave Minnesota Morris a 2-0 lead in the top of the second before Skyla Bristol brought two more runners home with a RBI single. The Cougars added onto their lead in the top of the fourth when a Stevens triple scored Anna Athey from second to give UMN Morris a 5-0 edge.

A three-error inning from Minnesota Morris opened the door for Keene State in the bottom of the fourth and the Owls scored four times to cut the deficit to a single run. Keene State then added another unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to knot the score at 5-5. 

Thornton came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth and the first-year pitcher came up clutch in the bottom of the seventh, retiring back-to-back hitters with the bases loaded to move the game into extra innings.

With international rules in place, each team began extras with a runner placed on second. Minnesota Morris converted that into two runs in the top of the eighth on a Bristol RBI groundout and a run scored by Stevens on a wild pitch. Keene State answered back with a RBI triple and a run scored on a passed ball to leave it at 7-7 heading to the ninth.

After quiet innings from both sides in the ninth, the game moved to the 10th inning where Sophie Diver moved Olivia Diver to third with a sac bunt while also reaching base. After S. Diver stole second, Athey hit a RBI groundout to push one run across before an error allowed S. Diver to race home for a 9-7 edge.

In the bottom of the 10th, Keene State pulled one run closer with one away in the inning and had the tying run on second and the winning run on first before Thornton got two Owls to pop up weakly to foul territory for the second out and then strike out looking to finish things off.

Minnesota Morris 5, Vermont State-Castleton 2
Bristol (5-1) went the distance and Minnesota Morris made its early lead hold up in the second game of the morning.

In the top of the first, Alice Wilkinson reached base on a single, stole second, went to third on a groundout and then scored on a Tori Nichols RBI single to make it 1-0.

That one-run lead held up until the top of the fifth when O. Diver scored on a wild pitch and Stevens drove in S. Diver with a sac fly to increase the margin to 3-0. The Spartans put their first run of the game on the board in the bottom of the inning to slice it to a 3-1 Cougar advantage.

Landherr immediately put Minnesota Morris back up by three runs in the sixth inning with a double that scored Nichols and ended with Landherr on third following a VSU-Castleton error. Olivia Losee then singled her in for a 5-1 lead.

Bristol struck out the final batter of the inning in each of the first three frames and did the same in the sixth. In the bottom of the seventh, the Spartans scored a run on a walk with the bases loaded to make it 5-2, but Bristol picked up another strikeout to finish things off and lock up the victory.