(Story by: Zach Koenig)
Morris, MN—After losing 16-14 against Crown College in last week’s UMAC crossover, the University of Minnesota-Morris softball team took both games from their UMAC rival on Monday by scores of 10-2 and 9-6.
In the first contest, the Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to hits from Diane Blommel (Fr. Long Prairie, MN), Heidi Miller (Fr. Eden Valley, MN), and Julie Rohling (So. Howard Lake, MN) as well as two Crown College errors.
However, Crown scored two runs of their own off UMM starting pitcher Stephanie Wilson (So. Detroit Lakes, MN) in the second inning to narrow the gap.
The Cougars opened things up in the bottom of the second inning, though, pounding out five hits and taking advantage of four more Crown errors to score five times and up their lead to 8-2.
Wilson held Crown scoreless the rest of the game, allowing just one earned run and four hits in five innings of work. She evened her record at 4-4 with the win.
The Cougars added two more runs in the fifth inning by stringing together five straight base-reaching plate appearances.
The offense continued to get healthy during the game, with five Cougars collecting two hits: Liz Leuty (Fr. St. Cloud, MN) (2-4, 2 R), Blommel (2-4, 1 RBI, 1 R), Ashley Corbett (Jr. Forest Lake, MN) (2-4, 1 RBI, 1 R), Miller (2-3, 2 RBI), and Rohling (2-3, 1 RBI).
Adding single hits were Heather Briese (Fr. Fergus Falls, MN) (1-4, 2 RBI, 2 R) and Bailey Jelle (Jr. Lakeville, MN) (1-3, 3 R).
Minnesota-Morris gave up a few more runs in the second contest, but again the offense proved more than capable of putting the game away.
The Cougars scored two first-inning runs when a walk to Leuty was followed by doubles from Blommel and Briese.
After Crown put a single run on the board in the top of the third, UMM increased its lead to 5-1 thanks to singles from Blommel, Corbett, and Alaina Benson (Sr. Clinton, MN) that led to three third-inning runs.
Though Crown tried to come back by scoring one run in the fourth inning and three runs in the fifth, the Cougar offense again proved up to the challenge. Jelle homered to lead off the fourth inning, while the Cougars scored twice more in the sixth.
UMM starting pitcher Benson stayed on the mound for the full seven innings, allowing six hits and five earned runs, also striking out five. Benson picked up her first win of the season.
Benson (3-3, 3 RBI) and Blommel (4-4, 1 RBI, 4 R) both had perfect games at the plate, while Briese contributed one hit, one RBI, and two runs scored.
Jelle (1-3, 1 RBI, 1 R), Corbett (1-3, 1 R), and Cortney Nikolaus (So. Anoka, MN) (1-3) rounded out the offensive production.
With the two victories, the Cougars keep inching towards a .500 UMAC record. They currently stand at 6-10 in the conference, 7-14 overall.
 |  |
| Minnesota-Morris | 10 | 12 | 3 |
| Crown College | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Game 1 |
Box Score
| |
| Minnesota-Morris | 9 | 11 | 1 |
| Crown College | 6 | 12 | 3 |
| Game 2 |
Box Score
