St. Paul, Minn. -- The University of Northwestern Eagles softball team (3-7) split with the UW-River Falls Falcons (3-3). The Eagles won game one 3-1 but the Falcons came back to win game two 5-0.
Game One
Telma Roesler (Hastings, Minn./Crown College) took advantage of an error to reach to begin the bottom of the first.
Courtney Schmidt (Spring Valley, Minn/Kingsland) followed with a sacrifice bunt, but she beat the throw to make it first and second.
Ellie Ronning (Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria Area) singled to bring home Roesler and
Lindsey Dvorak (Richmond, Minn./ROCORI) brought home Schmidt with a single of her own to make it 2-0.
In the third inning, Schmidt led off with a walk and Ronning crushed a triple off the wall in right center to bring her home but she was left stranded. That was all the support that
Briggs Carlson (North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West) (2-1) needed as she completely shut down the Falcons' offense. She gave up one unearned run in the fifth as she scattered five hits while she struck out five.
Game Two
The Falcons started off the top of the first with two runs, but
Diana Boyce (Phoenix, Ariz./Park City) (0-3) stranded the bases full to limit the damage. The Eagles followed with an immediate scoring chance as Schmidt hit a seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield.
Ellie Ronning (Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria Area) drew a walk but the two seniors were left stranded.
Pitching absolutely dominated game two as the Eagles struggled to get anything going throughout the game. The Falcons added two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to pull away. Boyce got the start and gave up two runs in four innings of work.
Samantha Burkhart (Salix, Iowa/Westwood) followed with three innings of work and she gave up three runs.
Up Next
The Eagles play a doubleheader against University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Tuesday, March 16th at Reynolds Field. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 2:00 pm.
Follow Northwestern softball online at www.unweagles.com or on Instagram @unwsoftball.
