MANKATO, Minn.- Why do fans of every sport enjoy the postseason so much? One of the biggest reasons has to be the tight, competitive games that have exciting, down-to-the-wire finishes. The University of Northwestern Softball team opened their UMAC Postseason Tournament with one of those games. They battled the top seed in the tournament, the UMAC Regular Season Champions, and the tournament hosts Bethany Lutheran and dropped the contest 4-3 in extra innings.
Emma Heffron (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) is the Eagles' starting pitcher with the most experience so UNW Head Coach
Alicia du'Monceaux gave her the ball in the team's first postseason game of the season. She was simply spectacular through the first four innings. She only gave up three hits through the first four frames as she took a shutout against the conference champions into the fifth inning.
Meanwhile, while Heffron was dealing in the circle, the Eagles' bats went to work on getting her a lead. The Eagles' first run of the game came in the top of the third when they went "station to station" beautifully.
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) drew a lead-off walk and
Kate Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) bunted her over to second base. Lane took third base on an ensuing groundout.
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) came up to the plate and hustled down the first base line to pick up an RBI, two out, infield single.
In the fifth, UNW doubled their lead from one to two. This time, they didn't use a lead-off baserunner to push across the run. The first two batters of the inning flied out and the Eagles had to use some two out magic to score a run.
Megan Lundt (Frisco, Texas/Lone Star) singled and gave way to
Reganne Henning (Beatrice, Neb./Beatrice) (the Eagles' most commonly used pinch runner).
Riley Summers (Fontana, Wis./Big Foot) singled and Henning used her speed to advance to third base on the play. A wild pitch brought Henning home to score. UNW had a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the home team finally got some positive mojo going with the bats. Bethany Lutheran hit a lead-off home run to immediately cut the Eagles' lead back to one.
Both teams loaded the bases in the sixth inning, but neither team was able to push across a run. The game entered the seventh and final (scheduled) inning with UNW clinging to a 2-1 lead.
UNW went down 1-2-3 in their half of the seventh but only needed to record three outs to pick up a tournament opening win. With one out, BLC drew a walk. The Vikings made the risky move to call a sacrifice bunt with the next batter. The bunt moved the runner to scoring position at second base but brought the Vikings to their final out. The gamble paid off. The next Viking batter hit a two out single to tie the game. The #4 Eagles and the #1 Vikings were tied after seven innings and the game went into extras.
The Eagles loaded the bases in the top of the eighth. Again, with two outs, another batter picked up a clutch, run scoring hit.
Sydney Lane (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) hit a single to score
Gabrielle Keith (Marble Rock, Iowa/Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock) and UNW was back in front 3-2.
Bethany was able to answer with a pair of runs in the home half of the eighth. The top seeded Vikings avoided the scare and won 4-3 on a walk-off single.
The UMAC Postseason Tournament is double elimination, so the Eagles are not done yet. #2 Minnesota-Morris lost to #3 Wisconsin-Superior in the other tournament game on Thursday. The Eagles and the Cougars will play an elimination game on Friday at 3:30 PM in Mankato. The winner of that game will play the loser of the Bethany Lutheran-Wisconsin-Superior game at 6:00 PM.
