NEW ULM, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Softball team stayed perfect in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference play on Saturday when they swept Martin Luther by scores of 9-1 and 13-0. The Eagles improve to 12-7 overall and 6-0 in conference play.
Softball is a team sport and the accomplishments of the team are the most important thing to each player and coach in the program. However, throughout a season, there are days when individual accolades and milestones become the story and need to be highlighted. Saturday was one of those days for UNW Softball.
The Eagles' head coach
Alicia du'Monceaux entered Saturday having already become a well-known, although difficult to spell/pronounce, household name amongst UNW Athletics fans and followers. During her fifteen seasons as the head coach of the Northwestern Eagles, Coach du'Monceaux has won more softball games than any other coach in program history. On Saturday, she eclipsed another milestone. The Eagles' 9-1 victory in game one was the 299
th win of her Eagle coaching career, and the 13-0 win in game two marked the 300
th victory in her illustrious career as the head coach of the Eagles. Coach du'Monceaux has made an incredible impact leading the UNW Softball team and that impact is obvious in the hundreds of wins her teams have collected over the last decade and a half. However, Coach du'Monceaux's biggest impact has been off the field, touching the lives of every player and coach that has put on a Northwestern uniform. Anybody who knows Coach du'Monceaux well knows one thing: she has no intentions of stopping at 300 wins and it may be safe to assume… she is already thinking about win #301.
Game One
After picking up a series opening win on Friday evening in New Ulm, the Eagles continued their dominance immediately in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. UNW's offense has been a wrecking ball to opposing pitching staffs in recent weeks and that trend continued on Saturday.
The Eagles scored right away in the top of the first when
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a triple (get used to reading that sentence) to start the game and immediately scored on a sac fly off the bat of
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake). MLC answered back with a run of their own in the home half of the first and the game was tied at one run apiece after an inning.
UNW loaded up the bases in the top of the second with only one out thanks to walks by
Maggie Oehlerking (Farmington, Minn./Farmington) and Lane followed by a single from Beer.
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) drew a walk to bring in the go-ahead run but a double play ended the Eagle threat. UNW led 2-1 entering the third.
Grace Bentley (Omaha, Neb./Marian) followed the lead of her teammate and hit a leadoff triple to start the third inning.
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) singled her home. Later in the inning, Lane picked up another extra base hit (a double this time) and drove in
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot). In the fourth inning, Keith brought in Bentley once more with an RBI double to take a 5-1 lead.
After scoring in each of the first four innings, the Eagles were held scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings (which really isn't a big deal, but this offense scores so much that when they don't score in back-to-back innings its actually pretty news worthy). After being stifled for two innings, the Eagles juggernaut of an offense exploded for four runs in the seventh to finish off the Knights.
Mikayla Gee (Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) scored on an RBI hit from Lane and Lane scored on an RBI knock from Beer. Bentley brought home Beer with an RBI single before Oehlerking drew a walk with the bases loaded to score
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo).
The Eagles' offense continued to add insurance runs, but they didn't end up being necessary.
Maddie Bottineau (Andover, Minn./Andover) got the start in the circle for UNW and the right hander was lights out for Coach du'Monceaux's squad. She gave up a run in the first inning and it was an unearned run. After that, she was nearly untouchable, shutting out the Knights for the remainder of the contest. She pitched a complete game, seven innings, gave up six hits, one walk, no earned runs, and struck out four.
UNW's offense had 18 hits and drew six walks in the game.
Grace Bentley (Omaha, Neb./Marian) had four hits while
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) and
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) each had three.
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake),
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star), and
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) each chipped in two hits.
Game Two
The Eagles finished game one by putting together their best offensive inning in the seventh and final frame. Perhaps the Eagles rode that momentum into game two? Or perhaps the Eagles were extra motivated to earn their coach her 300
th career win? Or perhaps the Eagles are just really good at scoring runs… who knows. Whatever the reason, the Eagles' offense came out in attack mode in the second game of the doubleheader and scored seven runs in the opening frame.
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a triple to start the game. No, I didn't make a mistake (although that isn't exactly an unlikely thing to happen… whoops). She did it AGAIN. Twice in the same day, and to cap it off: this wasn't the last triple she would collect on the afternoon. Once again, she scored on a
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) sacrifice fly. Déjà vu anyone? The rest of the inning summed up:
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) RBI single,
Chloe Kimmes (New Trier, Minn./Randolph) hit a ball to centerfield and came all the way around to score on an error,
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) sac fly, and
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a triple with the bases loaded to score three runs (yes. She literally hit two triples in an inning). Whew, what a frame. UNW led Martin Luther by a touchdown, 7-0.
UNW added single runs in the third and fourth innings and finished off the contest with four runs in the fifth. The Eagles would eventually win 13-0.
While the Eagles' offense has been stealing the headlines in recent games, softball fans cannot ignore what
Ireland Strubbe (Chandler, Ariz./Valley Christian) did in the circle during game two. Strubbe picked up her fourth win of the season by going five innings (complete game), only giving up one hit, no walks, no runs, and striking out four batters.
The Eagles' offense, pitching, and defense were firing on all cylinders to earn the 300
th win of Coach du'Monceaux's tenure.
Up Next
When does that quest for win #301 start exactly? Three days. The Eagles will dive back into nonconference play as they head to take on Wisconsin-River Falls on the road on Tuesday, April 9
th. It is a doubleheader that is scheduled to start at 2:00pm.
