Menomonie, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team completed its regular season with a sweep at UW-Stout Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field. The Eagles earned a 2-1 win in 10 innings in the opener before a 6-1 victory in the nightcap.
UWL improves to 23-16 overall and 7-7 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) and clinch a berth in the league tournament. The Eagles will be the sixth-seed and face the third-seed on Friday, May 8 at 2:30 p.m. at UW-Oshkosh. The third-seed is yet to be determined.
UW-Stout finishes 18-20 overall and 4-10 in the conference.
Carmen Follette (10-5) picked up the victory in the opener, pitching 10.0 innings, allowing three hits, one run (unearned) and four walks with eight strikeouts.
The game was scoreless through nine innings. UWL's
Laci Heppell led-off with a single to start the of the 10th followed by a pair of walks to
Lauren Thurk and
Carly Gross, both coming on full counts. After a strikeout, Heppell scored on
Amber Gonzalez' infield single to give UWL a 1-0 lead.
Lindsay Steien drew a bases-loaded walk to knock in Thurk to make it 2-0.
UW-Stout rallied in the bottom of the inning. Abbey Dusterhoft was hit-by-pitch with one and replaced by pincher Mattie Schilling. A groundout moved Schilling to second. Adi Singer followed with an infield single and after a UWL throwing error, Schilling scored to cut the lead to 2-1. Payton Dolecki walked, but Follette retired Rayni Bresnahan on a groundout to end the game.
UWL had six hits with Gonzalez finishing 3-for-5.
Sarah Wilkins (8-7) took the loss for UW-Stout in the opener. She also went 10.0 innings, allowing six hits, two runs and four walks while striking out 18.
UW-Stout had three players with a hit.
In the nightcap, UWL took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Steien singled with one out and went to second on a
Brooke Howard infield single.
Kasey Brouchoud walked to load the bases and
Marissa Pease delivered a two-run single knocking in Steien and Howard.
The Eagles added to their lead in the top of the fourth after
Josie Flom led-off with a walk and advanced to third on Gonzalez' double. Flom came in on Steien's RBI groundout to make it 3-0 and Brouchoud later added an RBI single to knock in Howard for a 4-0 advantage.
Howard's two-out two-run double in the fifth scored Gross and Flom to extend the lead to 6-0.
UW-Stout scored its run in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out double from Singer to score Emma Fortier.
Brynne Bieri (1-4) picked up the victory, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out six.
Claire Springer went the final 2.0 innings, allowing four hits and one run.
UWL finished with 16 hits with four players recording multiple-hits. Gonzalez went 4-for-5 while Pease finished 3-for-4 with two RBI. Howard went 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI and Heppell 2-for-3.
Jennalyn Mallmann (5-4) took the loss for UW-Stout, going 4.2 innings, allowing 12 hits, four runs and five walks.
The Blue Devils recorded seven hits with Singer going 2-for-4 with an RBI and Fortier 2-for-3 with a run.
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