ARDEN HILLS, Minn.—The Bethel University Royals and the Macalester College Scots played a softball doubleheader Sunday afternoon at the Ona Orth Complex and both ended in very dramatic fashion.
Game 1
The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first game thanks to Ericka Schwartz's double and a
Mariah Uphoff's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second. Uphoff finished 3-for-4 in the first game with the RBI coming on the sac fly. The Scots roared back in the fourth and fifth frames to take a 4-2 lead.
BU then responded in the bottom of the fifth thanks to an Anna Nicols double that scored
Emily Eaton.
Emily Eaton returned the favor an inning later with a two-RBI double of her own, which put the Royals up 5-4.
Bethel was unable to close out the game in the seventh, though, as Macalester's Julia Carpenter, who went 4-for-4 with four singles in the first game, scored the tying run. After a scoreless bottom of the seventh, game one headed to extra innings. But the Royals managed to celebrate the 6-5 triumph when
Ashton Brask scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth.
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Anna Nichols picked up the win, pitching all eight innings and striking out five along the way. Walks haunted the Scots in the first game, as they walked eight total batters. Morghan Bean was credited with the loss for Macalester.
Game 2
The Royals jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to a bases loaded walk by
Emily Eaton. However that was all BU would muster with the bases loaded and one out. The Scots answered in the top of the second, scoring three runs highlighted by a Natalie Platt single that plated a pair of runs.
Bethel then got one run back in the bottom half of the second and two runs in the bottom half of the third to reclaim the lead. The Scots later tied it in the fourth, but the Royals scored two runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning highlighted by a pair of RBI singles from
Mariah Uphoff and
Jana Roste.
With two outs in the top of the seventh all hope seemed lost for Scots, but they managed to scratch two runs across thanks to RBI singles from Morghan Bean and Nikki Caicedo that sent game two into extra innings. Similar to the first game, BU was able to win it in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a two-out single from
Emily Eaton that scored
Mariah Uphoff from second.
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Hannah Schmidt got the start for the Royals in game two and struck out two in seven innings pitched.
Anna Nichols picked up the win, however, as she pitched the eighth frame before Bethel scored the game-winning run in the bottom half of the inning. Morghan Bean picked the loss pitching all 7.2 innings for the Scots. Both games featured the same winning pitcher and losing pitcher.
The Royals improve to 7-9 on the year and 3-1 in conference play. Their next competition falls on Wednesday, April 5, when BU travels to Winona to face Saint Mary's University.
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