La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team dropped both games of a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader with UW-Platteville Thursday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Pioneers won the opener, 5-4, and the nightcap, 4-3 in 10 innings. UWL drops to 17-13 overall and 4-4 in the WIAC while UW-Platteville improves to 20-14 overall and 5-7 in the conference. 

The Pioneers batted around in the top of the first in the opener, scoring four runs on six hits. The Eagles cut the deficit to 4-2 in the bottom of the third with Brittany Baldwin scoring on Mia Schmidtke's single and Sydney Murphy coming in on a UW-Platteville throwing error.  Rachel Martin's RBI groundout scored Haili Cota to give UW-Platteville a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth. 

UWL cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth. The Eagles loaded the bases with no outs. Kerrigan Koch singled to score Karissa Akey and Katie Block came in on the play after a Pioneers' fielding error to make it a one-run game. UWL had runners on second and third with no outs in the sixth, but failed to score as the next three were retired. UWL put runners on first and third to start the bottom of the seventh and later stranded runners on second and third to end the game for the second straight inning.

Caitlyn Hughes (7-7) suffered the loss for UWL, pitching 3.1 innings, allowing 10 hits and five runs. Katie Klein went 3.2 innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out two. The Eagles totaled 10 hits in the game with Schmidtke finishing 2-for-4.

Ashton Hoeppner (12-8) earned the complete-game win for UW-Platteville. She went 7.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, four runs (three earned) and three walks while striking out eight. The Pioneers finished with 13 hits as Alejandra Ochoa going 3-for-3 with an RBI. Martin, Cayleen Ryan, Shannon Gaul and Rachel Bonnell each had two hits. 

UW-Platteville took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first in the nightcap after Martin doubled with two outs and scored on Jessy Tanel's two-run home run. UWL tied the contest in the bottom of the third with a two-out rally of its own. Baldwin and Sydney Murphy singled and scored on Schmidtke's two-run double. 

The Pioneers responded in the top of the fourth after Tanel doubled and scored on Gaul's single for a 3-2 lead. Back-to-back doubles by Schmidtke and Grace Mindrup in the bottom of the sixth tied the game for the Eagles. The game remained tied until the top of the 10th when Gaul delivered a two-out RBI single scoring Abby Jaques. 

Klein (3-2) suffered the loss in the second game, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing four hits, one run and three walks with four strikeouts. Sydne Shattuck started for the Eagles, going 4.0 innings, allowing five hits and three runs with one strikeout. UWL had seven hits in the game with Murphy and Schmidtke each finishing with two. Schmidtke had two RBI.

Abby Burns (5-3) earned the win for UW-Platteville, pitching 9.0 innings, allowing six hits, three runs and three walks while striking out six. Hoeppner earned her fourth save of the season. She went 1.0 inning allowing one hit with one strikeout. The Pioneers finished with nine hits with Gaul 3-for-5 with two RBI while Tanel went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI.

UWL returns to action Saturday, April 28 at UW-River Falls in a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.