La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team split its Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader with UW-Platteville Tuesday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles won the opener, 7-1, before the Pioneers came back with a 13-2 victory in five innings in the nightcap.
UWL is now 17-11 overall and 2-3 in the WIAC while UW-Platteville is 18-10 overall and 4-1 in the conference.
Amber Gonzalez went 3-for-5 in Tuesday's doubleheader.
Carmen Follette (7-3) earned the win in the opener on Tuesday, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing eight hits, one run and two walks with four strikeouts.
The Eagles took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
Lindsay Steien was hit-by-pitch to lead-off the inning and went to third on
Brooke Howard's double. After a fly-out,
Marissa Pease singled to knock in Steien with the game's first run.
Amber Gonzalez followed with an RBI double to score Howard for a 2-0 lead.
Josie Flom walked and was thrown out trying to advance to second, but Pease and Gonzalez scored after a UW-Platteville passed ball.
The score remained 4-0 until the bottom of the fourth. Pinch-runner
Bree Holmes scored on Steien's sacrifice fly to extend UWL's lead to 5-0.
UWL added two runs in the seventh with Steien drawing a bases-loaded walk to score Flom and Howard's sacrifice fly scored
Ava Jaehnke for a 7-0 lead.
UW-Platteville scored its lone run in the top of the seventh with Delila Liston scoring on Rylee Broshous' fielder's choice.
UWL finished with five hits in the opener with Gonzalez going 2-for-3. Steien had two RBI. Seven different runners scored a run.
Avery Lundblad (4-3) suffered the loss for UW-Platteville. She pitched 0.1 of an inning, allowing three hits and four runs. Carlie Jo Brownlee went 5.2 innings, allowing two hits, three runs and seven walks while striking out eight.
Lindsay Steien had a pair of RBI in the opener.
The Pioneers totaled 10 hits with Melissa Dietz finishing 3-for-3. Broshous went 2-for-4 with an RBI with Mia Savage going 2-for-3.
In the nightcap, UWL took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Steien reached on a fielding error to start the inning and went to third on
Kasey Brouchoud's single. Steien scored on a Pioneers' fielding error to make it 1-0 and Brouchoud later scored on Flom's fielder's choice.
UW-Platteville tallied five runs in the top of the third. Dietz' RBI single scored Greta Volkening to cut the lead to 2-1 and a Broshous double knocked in Liston to tie the game. Dietz scored on a UWL fielding error to give UW-Platteville a 3-2 lead and an RBI groundout from Kaia McVay and run-scoring infield single from Tessa Britt made it 5-2.
The Pioneers added four runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Broshous and McVay had RBI singles and Addison Conrad a two-run double in the fourth. Allison Peters hit a run-scoring single in the fifth while Liston scored on a throwing error and Broshous added a two-run home run.
Kaeley Niemiec (4-2) suffered the loss, pitching 2.1 innings, allowing five hits, five runs (three earned) and two walks while striking out one.
Brynne Bieri went 2.1 innings, allowing nine hits, eight runs and one walk with one strikeout.
Claire Springer went 0.1 of an inning.
Four different players had a hit in the nightcap for UWL.
Nora Buske (6-2) earned the win for UW-Platteville. She pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out one.
The Pioneers had 14 hits with three players recording multiple hits. Broshous went 3-for-4 with three runs and four RBI while Volkening finished 3-for-3 while scoring twice. Liston was 2-for-3 with three runs and two walks and Dietz finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.
UWL returns to action Wednesday, April 22 hosting third-ranked Saint Mary's University (Minn.) at 1 p.m.
