Game Box

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Southwest Minnesota State softball team kept its season alive on Friday morning with an 8-4 victory over St. Cloud State in an elimination game at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament at Bowden Field.
 
SMSU, which is now 2-1 in the tournament and with both wins over teams with 33 or more victories this season, will now play either Concordia-St. Paul or Minnesota Duluth at 2 p.m. on Friday at Sherman Park.
 
Madison Krog led a 13-hit SMSU attack going 3 for 4 with a run scores, while Mackenzie Clouse and Alex Reak both went 2 for 4. Kali Tomlinson also added a solo home run, her team-leading sixth of the season.
 
Megan Cull (7-9) tossed the complete game victory for the Mustangs, allowing four runs on seven hits.
 
SMSU (17-25) snapped a scoreless game in the third inning as Reak belted a solo home run to lead off the inning. Bailey Johnson pushed across another run with an RBI ground out.
 
SCSU, which beat SMSU twice in Marshall on April 22 and is ranked ninth in this week's NCAA Central Region rankings, cut the lead lead in half in the fourth inning on a home run by Haley McFarlane.  
 
SMSU then rallied with a huge sixth innings, putting together six hits to score five runs and push the lead to 7-1. The first run of the inning scored on a SCSU fielding error, before SMSU put together four straight hits and also added a bases loaded hit by pitch to score four runs. Sara DeSmet and Emma Grote had two of the hits to drive in runs, while Abbie Decker was hit by a pitch to score another run. Johnson capped the inning with a sac fly to score DeSmet.
 
SCSU (35-19) rallied with a three-run sixth to trim the deficit to 7-4, but Tomlinson smacked a solo homer in the seventh to give SMSU an 8-4 cushion.