Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score
 
MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State softball team (11-9, 6-2 NSIC) dropped its first conference double header with a 7-1 final score in both game one and two to No. 14 Augustana (28-5, 8-0 NSIC) in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference softball doubleheader at the Schwan Regional Event Center on Tuesday.
 
Game One
Augustana, ranked No. 14 nationally, used a pair of big innings to earn a 7-1 victory over SMSU.

The Vikings snapped a scoreless game with a four-run fourth inning and then added three more in the seventh.

SMSU scored its lone run of the game in the fourth as Alex Reak singled home Bailey Johnson.

Emma Grote led the offense with two hits. 

Athena Golling (7-4) suffered the loss in the circle as she tossed seven innings, allowing seven runs on 11 hits with five strikeouts.
 
 
Game Two
 
SMSU put up its lone run in the bottom of the first as Grote led off the inning with a single up the middle. Johnson brought Grote in from first with a double down the left line.
 
The Vikings responded in the top of the third with two singles to finish the inning with one run, three hits and stranded two runners on base.
 
In the next three innings, SMSU was unable to bring the runners in stranding five total.
 
Augustana took advantage of a three-run inning in the top of the fifth for a 4-1 lead after Augie's Mary Pardo tripled down the line to score two runs. Pardo finished with four hits, three of those were triples.
 
Olivia Wolters (6-0) came in in relief and threw four shutout innings to earn the win.
 
Southwest Minnesota State (11-9, 6-2 NSIC) heads on the road for the first road series of the season with a double header on Saturday at Winona State at 1 and 3 p.m. and Sunday at Upper Iowa at 12 and 2 p.m.