ROCHESTER, Minn. – The UW-Stout softball team secured two victories on Sunday at the Rochester Dome, defeating Luther College 3-2 in the opener and following up with a 6-5 win over Buena Vista University.
Game One: UW-Stout 3, Luther College 2
UW-Stout rallied for a 3-2 victory over Luther College in the first game of the doubleheader.
Luther took an early lead, scoring single runs in the first and second innings. Raven Allen hit an RBI double in the first and Kari Welter added a solo home run in the second to put Stout in a 2-0 hole.
The Blue Devils answered in the home half of the second,
Katie Monroe worked a bases loaded walk to score Stephanie Khun to cut the deficit in half. Khun finished the game 2-3.
Donna D'Addabbo and
Sarah Wilkins hit back-to-back RBI doubles to give Stout the 3-2 lead after the third.
Olivia Ott earned the win in relief, scattering five hits over five scoreless innings. She worked around traffic effectively, striking out batters in big spots, including working out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the seventh with a pair of strike outs before getting the Norse to fly out to center to end the game.
Game Two: UW-Stout 6, Buena Vista 5
The Blue Devils capped off the day with a narrow 6-5 victory over Buena Vista University. Stout's offense took advantage of three Buena Vista errors, scoring five unearned runs to secure the win.
The Beavers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Stout responded in the bottom of the third, scoring two runs off of a couple errors to take a 2-1 lead.
Stout added a another run the bottom of the third when
Adi Singer singled to left to drive in
Liz Rohl.
BVU cut the lead in half in the top of the sixth, and Stout added insurance runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Abbey Dusterhoft scored on another Beaver error,
Payton Dolecki followed with a ground rule double to score Singer and
Rayni Bresnahan singled to left to score Dolecki to give Stout a 6-2 lead.
Buena Vista loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, with two outs, the Beavers scored two on a ground rule double. The next batter singled to left to score one to cut the lead to 6-5 but the trailing runner was thrown out at the plate by
Payton Dolecki to save the game for the Blue Devils.
Jennalyn Mallmann pitched four innings, scattering six hits and striking out two to earn her first career win.
Olivia Ott pitched three innings in relief to pick up the save.
Sarah Wilkins and
Abbey Dusterhoft each went 2-3 at the plate Dusterhoft scored twice as did Dolecki.
Stout will be off next week and will return to action on Friday, March 13 when they face Ohio Northern University in Clermont, Fla. on the Blue Devils Spring break trip to the sunshine state.
