ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Softball team hadn't played a game since Tuesday, March 19
th when they defeated North Central 30-1. Exactly two weeks later, on Tuesday, April 2
nd, the Eagles finished their season series with the Rams hosting them in a doubleheader that had been rescheduled from March. UNW defeated the season sweep of North Central defeating them 26-2 and 18-3 on Tuesday.
Let's be honest here: everybody who attended the Eagles' doubleheader on Tuesday was cold. It's not that they weren't happy to be there, because they were. They were just also cold. Okay, okay… not everybody was cold. The members of UNW's lineup were not cold for two reasons: 1. Their bats were on fire and 2. They spent most of the afternoon circling the Reynolds Field bases.
The Eagles' offensive numbers from the doubleheader were other worldly. In the two games, the Eagles scored 44 runs, picked up 44 hits (exactly the same amount of runs and hits, that's pretty cool), drew nine walks, only struck out twice, hit nine doubles, and hit six home runs.
In game one, 14 different Eagles had base hits while seven players had multi-hit games. In the series finale, 13 Eagles collected hits while five picked up multiple hits in the contest.
UNW used the long ball to help power their offense on Tuesday night and multiple members of Northwestern's offense hit milestone homeruns.
Briar Armatoski (Amherst, Wis./Pacelli Catholic) hit a home run in game two and it was the first big fly of her Northwestern career.
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) hit a home run in each contest including a grand slam in game one. She now has seven home runs on the season and ten in her Eagle career. Krista Tokle has the all-time single season home run record when she hit nine in 2005. Nicolle Hebert ('98) has the program record for most career home runs with 13.
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian),
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake), and
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) joined Armatoski by hitting their first home runs of the season as well on Tuesday.
The hitters weren't the only ones who got it done for the Eagles in their pair of victories.
Ireland Strubbe (Chandler, Ariz./Valley Christian) picked up her third win of the season by going five innings, giving up two runs, and striking out seven in game one.
Emma Edwards (Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine) picked up the win in game two with four innings and three runs allowed.
Maddie Bottineau (Andover, Minn./Andover) pitched an inning of scoreless relief for the Eagles and picked up a pair of strikeouts.
The Eagles are now 3-0 in UMAC play and will go up against another conference foe this upcoming weekend. This upcoming Friday (April 5
th) the Eagles start a three game set in New Ulm against Martin Luther.
