ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State softball team (2-1) would make a late comeback, but a pair of errors would prove costly, falling to Northwestern (Iowa) (6-0) 7-6 on Saturday afternoon to open day two of the Kelly Laas Invitational in St. Cloud.
Abby Russell would finish the day 2 for 5, driving in three and scoring once after hitting her first collegiate home run.
Bailey Johnson would add to the offense with a 3 for 4 day, and
Jillian Noel would add three hits as well.
Russell would kick the scoring off in her first at-bat, hitting a lead-off home run in the first to give SMSU an early 1-0 lead. She would come up big in the second inning as well, driving in two runs on a double to left center to give SMSU a 3-0 lead.
Northwestern would get on the board in the fourth with a two-out RBI single, but
Jillian Noel would drive in
Lileya Kebos with an RBI triple in the bottom half of the inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Northwestern would begin their rally in the fifth, delivering a one-out RBI single before a bases-loaded fielder's choice to make the score 4-3. The Raiders would try and get aggressive on the bases but would get thrown out at the plate on the same play to end the fifth trailing 4-3.
Northwestern would tie the game in the sixth with a one-out RBI single and would take a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh after reaching on a sacrifice bunt and would score two more on an error to open the game up and lead 7-4.
The Mustangs would claw back, as a Noel leadoff single would be followed by a
Molly Bull RBI double to pull within two.
Paige Ahrendt would deliver a clutch two-out RBI single to cut the Raiders lead in half, and
Paige Shwaluk would single to get the tying run to second base, but it wouldn't be enough to get past the Raiders.
The Mustangs would finish with 15 hits, as Bull and Shwaluk would each join Russell, Johnson, and Noel with multi-hit games.
Allison Christians (1-1) would get the start in the circle, giving up just two hits in 4 2/3 of an inning, but would give up four lead-off walks and give up three runs.
Karlie Miller would go 2 2/3, giving up just one earned run (four total) in the loss.
The Mustangs will play again later tonight, with first pitch against St. Cloud State estimated around 9 p.m.
