Mankato, Minn. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team earned a pair of victories Saturday at the Bethany Lutheran College (Minn.) Kwik Trip Invitational at the MSU Dome.
The Eagles improved to 3-1 on the season with a 3-2 victory over St. Olaf College (Minn.) and an 8-2 win over Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.).
Madi Lee and
Carmen Follette combined to hold St. Olaf (Minn.) to one hit in UWL's victory. Lee went 5.1 innings, allowing one walk while striking out three to earn the win while Follette picked up her second save, going 1.2 innings, allowing one hit and two unearned runs with one strikeout.
UWL took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
Brooke Howard walked to start the game, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on
Kyra Lard's double.
The Eagles extended the lead to 2-0 in the top of the fifth and made it 3-0 in the top of the sixth.
Carly Gross singled in the fifth, stole second and came in on Lard's RBI single.
Lindsay Steien scored in the sixth on
Nicole Zoellner's fielder's choice to extend the lead to 3-0.
St. Olaf (Minn.) cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth. Both runs were unearned after a UWL error. The Oles left the potential game tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh.
UWL finished with seven hits as Lard went 3-for-4 with two RBI. Howard was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
UWL scored four runs in the bottom of the first in its victory over Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.). Lard singled with one out and scored on Zoellner's triple to make it 1-0. Steien's two-run home run extended the lead to 3-0 and Flom followed with back-to-back home runs to make it 4-0.
The Gusties cut the lead to 4-1 in the top of the fourth, but the Eagles tallied two runs in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 6-1. Howard's triple scored
Aliyah Langrehr and Lard's RBI groundout scored Howard.
In the bottom of the sixth, UWL scored twice to make it 8-1.
Cristin Casey stole home for the first run of the inning while Howard later scored on an error.
Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) scored the game's final run in the top of the seventh.
Follette earned the win versus Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.), pitching 3.0 innings, allowing three hits, one run and two walks with five strikeouts. UWL had nine hits with Steien going 2-for-3 with two RBI and one run while Howard finished 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI.
UWL returns to action Saturday, March 1 facing Macalester College (Minn.) at 12 p.m. and St. Olaf (Minn.) at 4:30 p.m. in the Rochester (Minn.) Dome Games.