Softball Wins Two Close Ones Versus Northern St. And SMSU

OVERVIEW – Northern St. & Southwest Minnesota St.

SCORES: Northwood 3, Northern St. 2 / Northwood 2, Southwest Minnesota St. 1

RECORDS: Northwood (9-7), Northern St. (8-3)/ Northwood (10-7), Southwest Minnesota St. (6-13)

LOCATION: Auburndale, Fla. – The Spring Games

RECAP: Northwood softball continued the Florida trip with games five and six of 12 on Monday (March 11) versus Northern St. and Southwest Minnesota St. The Timberwolves won two close ones, defeating the Wolves of Northern St. 3-2 in extras before earning a 2-1 win over SMSU.

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS

• A Northern single up the middle forced Lundquist to come up firing from center with an NSU baserunner trying to score. Lundquist would nail the runner at the plate to keep it even 0-0.
• The game remained 0-0 moving into the sixth. NSU would be the first to score via a single, RBI double, and an RBI groundout. The Wolves would be up 2-0 going into Northwood's half of the sixth.
• With two outs, a Jillian Krawczak single through the left side started the Northwood rally in the sixth. Pinch hitter Gage Lambert smoked a double to left one batter later, plating Krawczak, 2-1 NSU.
• Another clutch single with two outs evened the game at 2-2. Lundquist's RBI would score Lambert from second.
• Moving to the seventh, tied at 2-2, the Timberwolves' defense had to make a play as State earned a leadoff walk, which advanced to second on a wild pitch. A groundout moved the runner to third when Kamden Binney made a great defensive play on a ball hit back to her, throwing to home to get the lead runner before Gianna Fantin threw out the runner, trying to take two.
• Still tied at 2-2 the teams went to international rules with a runner on second to start the eighth. Northwood's heads-up defense by Delanie Gale kept the runner from scoring.
• Northwood would walk it off in the bottom half of the eighth. Karlie Moore's sac bunt was thrown past first, scoring Ashley Ziel from second, giving the Timbys the win 3-2.

GAME ONE STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 3/7/0, Northern St. 2/7/2
• Runners left on base: Northwood 10, Northern St. 7
• Winning Pitcher –Kamden Binney (2-3), 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 0 K
• Losing Pitcher – L. Chase (1-2), 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R (2 ER), 3 BB, 6 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Lambert: 1-1, 2B, RBI, R
• Krawczak: 2-2, R, BB
• Lundquist: 1-4, RBI

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS

• Southwest Minnesota St. started the scoring in the second. The Mustangs had first and third before a miss-thrown ball to a stealing baserunner at second gave the Mustangs their only run of the ballgame.
• Again, like in game one, the Northwood offense would rally with two outs. Karlie Moore's single to center in the fifth let Elexia Fuentes move the line with a single to short. Krawczak's single through the right side tied it at 1-1 after five.
• Northwood's Brittany Steimel continues to stay red-hot, hitting her sixth home run in the last seven games to put the Timberwolves on top 2-1 in the top of the sixth. With only 17 games played, Steimel is one home run shy of her single-season career-high (7).
• Northwood Emily Cox would nail down her third straight win in Florida. Cox put away the final six straight batters to give NU their 10^th victory of the season.

GAME TWO STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 2/6/2, Southwest Minnesota St. 1/2/0
• Runners left on base: Northwood 3, Southwest Minnesota St. 3
• Winning Pitcher – Emily Cox (4-1), 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 5 K
• Losing Pitcher – M. Otte (2-5), 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 4 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Steimel: 1-3, HR (6), RBI, R
• Fuentes: 2-3

UP NEXT

• Northwood softball is back in action Tuesday (March 12) for games nine and ten of their 12-game stint in Florida with battles versus Southern Connecticut St. at 1:30 p.m. followed by McKendree at 4 p.m.