ST. PAUL, Minn.- The University of Northwestern Softball team has one more weekend series at Reynolds Field before leaving the friendly confines of their home field and entering postseason play next week. The Eagles are hosting Crown College for three games over the course of Friday and Saturday. UNW started the series by defeating Crown 4-0 in game one on Friday for their 10
th conference victory of the season.
If you are a fan who enjoys offense and teams scoring runs and you watched any inning besides the fourth inning on Friday, you may have been a bit disappointed. However, if you are a fan of pitching and defense, you would have been ecstatic watching those other six innings in Friday's series opener.
Emma Heffron (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) and
Maddie Bottineau (Andover, Minn./Andover) were simply spectacular in the circle for the Eagles. The two right handed pitchers combined to pitch a seven inning shutout against the Polars on Friday. Heffron went four innings, only gave up two hits, and struck out five batters over her four innings of work. Bottineau, pitching in relief, went three innings, only gave up one hit, and racked up three punch outs.
The Eagles' pitching staff shutout the Polars for all seven innings of play in the opening game of the series. The Polars' pitching staff nearly matched that, not allowing the Eagles to score a run in six of the seven innings. Fortunately for the Eagles and their fans, the one inning where they did score runs ended up being a big inning.
All of the game's runs came in the bottom of the fourth. The number four ended up being very relevant in this frame: it was the fourth inning, the first four Eagle batters in the inning reached base, and UNW scored four runs.
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) walked to start the inning.
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) laid down a bunt but it was misplayed by the Crown infield and she reached base on an error. Keith moved to third base on the play.
Briar Armatoski (Amherst, Wis./Pacelli Catholic) and
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) each followed that up with infield singles (Armatoski's was hit to the right side of the infield and scored a run; Terry's was a bunt single that loaded the bases).
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) came up to the plate and picked up an RBI by hitting a ball to right field. It was misplayed in the outfield and
Mikayla Gee (Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) (who had pinch ran for Summers) scored on the play.
Emma Edwards (Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine) came into the game as a pinch hitter and drew a walk with the bases loaded. (Okay, okay… did you catch us? The first six batters of the inning actually reached base. We were just really loving how everything was the number four in this inning and were hoping you wouldn't notice. Sorry, not sorry.)
Jadyn Iverson (West Fargo, N.D./West Fargo) added an RBI on a ground ball before the frame was over. The Eagles ended the fourth inning with four runs (see what we mean? The symmetry is just too good to pass up) and led 4-0. That ended up being the game's final score.
UNW will host Crown in a doubleheader on Saturday, May 4
th. Game one is scheduled for 11:00 AM and game two will take place around 1:00 PM. Saturday marks senior day for the Eagles as the team will honor the four players who are leaving the program after this season.
