ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Softball team is currently sitting in third place in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and is coming down the stretch of the regular season. The Eagles are aiming to be playing their best softball of the season as they prepare for the conference tournament next week and the team took a good step towards that goal on Tuesday night. UNW hosted Minnesota-Morris in a doubleheader at Reynolds Field and won both games by scores of 9-6 and 11-2.
Game One
The Eagles and the Cougars met just three days after the Cougars topped the Eagles 9-8 in an extra innings thriller. On Tuesday, the Eagles came ready to play from the first pitch. UNW put up four runs in the first inning to take a commanding early lead.
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo) knocked in
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Central Methodist) and
Mikayla Gee (Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) with a single up the middle.
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) then followed it up with a two run homerun to left field to put the Eagles up 4-0. The homerun was Beer's second of the season.
Morris grabbed two runs in the top of the second to make it a 4-2 game before the Eagles responded with more offense in the bottom of the frame.
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Central Methodist) drove in
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) with a sacrifice fly ball to left field and UNW's lead grew to 5-2.
Trailing by three, the Cougars would storm back by scoring a pair of runs in each the fourth and fifth innings. Thanks to two separate homeruns, the Cougars had erased their deficit and now led 6-5.
Now it was UNW's turn to respond, and they did just that in a big way in the bottom of the fifth.
Lindsey Dvorak (Richmond, Minn./ROCORI) would pinch hit with the bases loaded and would deliver her first of two big hits in that scenario on the afternoon (read the game two recap for the rest of the story). She ripped a bases clearing double that put UNW back on top.
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) would then hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) and UNW led 9-6, which would end as the final score.
Emma Heffron (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) picked up her sixth win of the season by pitching a complete game. Dvorak had three RBIs with one swing of the bat and
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo) went 2-3 with two RBIs. The Eagles had 15 hits as a team.
Game Two
The Eagles' offense followed up their impressive showing in game one with an even more impressive performance in the encore. Once again, UNW struck in the first inning to take an early lead.
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Central Methodist) hit a sacrifice fly that scored
Mikayla Gee (Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) and allowed
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) to move up to third and then score on a throwing error. UNW led 2-0.
Morris scored a run in the second and then followed up with another run in the third to tie the game.
Grace Bentley (Omaha, Neb./Wheaton College) hit an RBI single in the fourth and then
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) stole home in the fifth to give UNW their two run lead back.
The Eagles' offense would explode in the sixth inning to give them an early win. UNW scored seven runs to force the eight run rule and win 11-2.
Grace Bentley (Omaha, Neb./Wheaton College) hit another RBI single and then
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) followed with an RBI single of her own. The bases were loaded and once again
Lindsey Dvorak (Richmond, Minn./ROCORI) pinch hit. Head Coach
Alicia du'Monceaux found a formula that worked and kept going back to it, and that formula was to pinch hit Dvorak with the bases loaded. For the second time in the afternoon, Dvorak came through. In her second at bat of the afternoon and her first of the game, she hit a grand slam to end the game. It was her first homerun of the season. Dvorak finished the day 2-2 with seven RBIs.
Ireland Strubbe's (Chandler, Ariz./Valley Christian) record in the circle improved to 11-2 on the year. She pitched six innings, gave up two runs, and struck out three.
Up Next
The Eagles will close out the regular season at home with a doubleheader against Martin Luther on Saturday, May 6
th.
