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Box Score 2 La Crosse, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team, ranked 23rd on this week's National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top-25 Poll, split a pair of games with UW-Oshkosh Sunday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles fell in the opener, 5-1, before coming back to take the nightcap, 5-3, in the final regular-season games of the year. UW-L is now 26-12 overall and 11-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while UW-Oshkosh is 28-10 overall and 12-4 in the conference. The Titans now lead the all-time series, 33-27, with UW-L.
UW-Oshkosh will be the number-three seed and UW-L the fourth-seed for the WIAC Tournament scheduled to start Friday, May 1 at UW-Eau Claire. The Titans and Eagles will play each other at 2 p.m. Friday in the double-elimination tournament.
In Sunday's opener, UW-Oshkosh got out to a 5-0 lead after the two innings. Erika Berry hit a double to rightfield scoring Haley Bayreuther, who reached on a leadoff walk, for the first run of the game. Emily Mallek later hit a two-run single to scoring Hayden Kreuger and Berry to make it 3-0 after one inning. The Titans added to their lead with a pair of runs in the top of the second on an RBI single by Krueger and an RBI groundout by Katie Koepsel.
UW-L avoided the shutout in the bottom of the seventh.
Kelli Anderson doubled to start the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner
Brooke Baldwin. Baldwin advanced to third on a groundout and scored on
Shelby Beckman's RBI groundout.
Heather Grelle (4-2) suffered the loss for UW-L, pitching 0.1 of an inning, allowing three runs on three hits and one walk with one strikeout.
Katie Klein went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out six.
Sarah Mueller went 2-for-2 for the Eagles while
Emily Holldorf,
Alecia Faber, and
Brittany Baldwin each finished 2-for-3.
Sara Brunlieb (19-3) earned the win for UW-Oshkosh, pitching a complete-game. She went 7.0 innings, allowing one run on nine hits with 10 strikeouts. Krueger went 3-for-3 for the Titans while Berry and Mallek each finished 2-for-3. Mallek had two RBI.
In the nightcap, the Titans once again took an early lead with two runs on three hits in the top of the first inning. Koepsel started the scoring with a single to plate Krueger and Mallek followed with an RBI double knocking in Koepsel. UW-Oshkosh pushed its lead to 3-0 with a run in the top of the third as Berry scored on a Koepsel single.
The Eagles cut their deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the third as Holldorf singled and scored on
Emilie Wiltzius' two-run home run. Wiltzius moved into a tie for third in career home runs (16) and single-season home runs (9) in UW-L history.
UW-L took a 5-3 lead with a three-run fourth inning as eight batters came to the plate.
Andrea Coles executed a pinch-hit suicide squeeze bunt to score
Erin Maletzke to the game at 3-3.
Brittany Baldwin followed with an infield single to score Anderson for a 4-3 lead and
Megan Nelson drove in Coles with the final run on a fielder's choice
Jessie Carignan (9-3) earned the win for UW-L, pitching 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Nelson registered her first save of the season, going 1.1 innings with one strikeout.
Holldorf finished 3-for-4 with a run while Mueller finished 2-for-3.
Clare Robbe (9-7) suffered the loss for UW-Oshkosh, pitching 1.0 inning, allowing three runs on four hits. Brunlieb started and finished the game, going 5.0 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. Koepsel went 2-for-3 with two RBI and Mallek finished 2-for-3.
UW-L returns to action on Friday, May 1 in the WIAC Championship at UW-Eau Claire. UW-L, the fourth-seed for the championships, face third-seeded UW-Oshkosh at 2 p.m.
