ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Softball team expected to be playing a three game series with UMAC foe Northland College this weekend. However, earlier in the week,
Northland announced that they would not be completing their 2024 softball season. With no games scheduled for this weekend and beautiful weather on the horizon, UNW Softball Head Coach
Alicia du'Monceaux went to work and quickly scheduled a game with St. Catherine University.
The Eagles and the Wildcats decided to sneak in a game on Friday afternoon at Reynolds Field. Neither team had much time to prepare for their opponent but it was sunny, warm, and each team had Friday afternoon available: play ball.
UNW and SCU played earlier this season inside the Mankato dome. In their first meeting on February 17
th, the Eagles won decisively 10-2. The Eagles were able to complete the season sweep of St. Kate's by picking up another win on Friday but it was anything but decisive. UNW was ahead for the majority of the game, then trailed late, came back to take the lead, and almost saw the Wildcats pull of an incredible comeback of their own before sealing the win.
The first two innings were all about the starting pitching.
Emma Heffron (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) pitched a scoreless first before ending another scoreless inning with a swinging strikeout in the second. UNW was also held scoreless through the first two innings.
Heffron gave up a one out walk in the top of the third to put a runner on first base. The next Wildcat batter hit a line drive directly at
Briar Armatoski (Amherst, Wis./Pacelli Catholic) at second base who caught it and flipped it over to
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo) at first for an inning ending double play.
The Eagles opened up the scoring in the home half of the third. After her sparkling defensive play to end the top of the third, Armatoski started the bottom of the third with a leadoff single.
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian), the reigning UMAC and NCCAA Player of the Week, used a sacrifice bunt to allow Armatoski to take second base.
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) and
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) drew walks to load the bases.
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo) came up to the plate and drilled a line drive to left field. The bad news: it stayed in the air long enough for St. Kate's left fielder to catch it. The good news: it was deep enough to allow Armatoski to tag up and score the game's first run. UNW led 1-0 after three innings.
Heffron continued to be on a roll in the circle, pitching her fourth scoreless frame to start the game. Once again, she got some help from her defense in the top of the fourth. Heffron retired the first two batters before giving up a two out single and a steal of second base. The Wildcat batter singled to left field with two outs. The runner from second base tried to score and tie the game, but
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) delivered a missile from left field all the way to the catcher
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) who applied the tag. The runner was out and UNW held onto their one run lead.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Eagles got an insurance run off the bat of
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot). The sophomore launched a ball over the left field fence for a solo shot that gave UNW a 2-0 lead. The home run was Summers' second of the season.
Heffron pitched a scoreless fifth frame in what would be her final inning of work on Friday. She ended the game with five shutout innings, gave up five hits, two walks, and picked up a strikeout. The Eagles were also held scoreless in the fifth.
St. Kate's had been trailing for the majority of the game entering the top of the sixth. Their offense had sputtered throughout the contest and when they did get offense, it was cut down by great defensive plays by the Eagles. However, everything changed in the top of the sixth. Everything appeared to happen fast; in the blink of an eye the Wildcats had singled, advanced on a passed ball, reach base on back-to-back Eagle errors, executed a double steal of second and third base, and delivered a two run single. In what felt like an instant, the Wildcats went from trailing 2-0 to lead 3-2.
The Eagles did not trail for long. They put together a big inning of their own in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on first and second base and one out,
Ally Ehnstrom (Aitkin, Minn./Aitkin) came off the bench to pinch hit. She picked up a clutch, game tying RBI single to right field. A passed ball allowed
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) to score before
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) and
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) each drove in runs with base hits. UNW scored four in the sixth to take the lead back, 6-3.
The drama was far from over. The Eagles' defense, which had been spectacular early in the game and had saved runs for their pitchers, began to falter a bit in the sixth and seventh innings. St. Kate's picked up a leadoff single and the second batter of the inning reached on an error. A run came around to score on another Eagle throwing error in the inning. Eagle pitcher
Maddie Bottineau (Andover, Minn./Andover) picked up a huge strikeout for the first out of the inning. The next batter hit a groundball that bounced off of Bottineau's glove but landed right at the feet of Armatoski at second base. She made the play for the second out of the frame but a run did score on the play. The scoreboard now read 6-5 in favor of UNW and the tying run was on third base with two outs. Bottineau made a good pitch which was fouled off to the right side. Iverson moved to her left and made the catch in foul territory just a step away from the fence. The Eagles had blown a lead, rallied, nearly blown a second lead, but held on for a wild 6-5 nonconference victory.
The Eagles will continue nonconference play on Wednesday, April 17
th when they welcome Luther College from the American Rivers Conference to Reynolds Field for a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 3:30 PM.
