River Falls, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team earned a doubleheader split at UW-River Falls Saturday afternoon. The Falcons took the opener, 3-2, before the Eagles came back to win the nightcap, 11-7. UWL is now 18-14 overall and 5-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while UW-River Falls is 19-11 overall and 4-6 in the conference.

The Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning in Saturday's opener as Kaia Dorn scored an unearned run after a Eagles' error. The game remained 1-0 until the top of the sixth with UWL's Sydney Murphy singled to lead-off the inning was replaced by pinch-runner Maddie Yont. Mia Schmidtke then followed with a two-run home run to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.

UW-River Falls came right back in the bottom of the sixth as Amber Galloway hit a two-run home run scoring pinch-runner Rachel Renz to give the lead back to the Falcons at 3-2. UWL put runners on first and second with one out in the top of the seventh, but Murphy grounded into a double play to end the game.

Caitlyn Hughes (7-8) suffered the loss for UWL, going 5.2 innings, allowing six hits, three runs (two earned) and three walks while striking out four. Five different players had a hit for the Eagles.

Maddie Studnicka (4-1) picked up the victory for UW-River Falls. She pitched 2.0 innings in relief, allowing two hits and one walk. Six different players had a hit for the Falcons.

UWL's took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second on Sarah Stewart's three-run home run. The Falcons cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the inning on Shannan Borchardt's RBI double. The Eagles added three runs in the top of the third to take a 6-1 advantage. Allison Oster had an RBI double, Grace Mindrup an RBI groundout and Sabrina Scardamaglia a sacrifice fly for an RBI. Dorn's two-run home run for UW-River Falls cut the lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the third.

Mindrup connected on a two-run home run in the top of the fifth to give UWL a 8-3 advantage, but Molly Kaspar's two-run home run for UW-River Falls in the bottom of the inning cut the lead back to 8-5.  Grace Schwegel and Kerrigan Koch hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the sixth for 10-5 lead. An Ali Krohn single in the bottom of the sixth for UW-River Falls cut it to 10-6.

Each team scored a run in the seventh as Scardamaglia scored on a UW-River Falls error in the top of the inning while Studnicka hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning.

Katie Klein (4-2) earned the victory, pitching 3.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs (two earned) and two walks while striking out one. UWL had 13 hits with Katie Block finishing 3-for-4 with one run. Murphy went 2-for-4 with one run while Mindrup finished 2-of-4 with three RBI and two runs. Steward finished with three RBI while Scardamaglia scored twice.

Payton Speckel (8-6) suffered the loss for UW-River Falls, pitching 2.0 innings, allowing six hits and six runs while striking out two. The Falcons had nine hits with Kasper and Borchardt each finishing with two hits.

The game featured 13 extra-base hits, including five home runs.

UWL returns to action Sunday, April 29 hosting UW-Whitewater at 1 p.m. It will be Senior Day in the Eagles' regular-season home finale.