Lady Spartans Finish Weekend 3-1

The M Sate Lady Spartan softball team won three games while losing one in a highly competitive Minnesota College Athletic Conference Crossover Tournament held in Rochester this weekend. On Friday, the Lady Spartans rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Rochester Community and Technical College 5-4. They defeated Riverland College 16-0 in game two. On Saturday, the Lady Spartans needed some late inning heroics to defeat Northland Community and Technical College (NCTC) 9-8. They dropped their final game of the weekend 10-0 to Dakota College Bottineau.

In Saturday's first game against NCTC, the Lady Spartans grabbed a quick 3-0 first inning lead on a leadoff double by Macky Warne, a bunt single by Allison Stafki, a two run single by Anna Carlson, and a RBI single by McKenna Erickson.

The Lady Spartans scored a run in the third inning on a Morgan Smith RBI double to make the score 4-0. NCTC scored a run in the top of the fourth to make the score 4-1, but the Lady Spartans answered that in the bottom of the fourth on a leadoff double by Stafki and an RBI double for Carlson for the 5-1 lead.

An unearned run gave the Lady Spartans a 6-1 lead after five innings, but some late game mistakes by the usually very good Lady Spartan defense opened the door for NCTC. NCTC scored four runs in the top of the sixth to make the score 6-5 Lady Spartans. The Lady Spartans made another error in the top of the seventh allowing NCTC to tie the game at 6-6. The Lady Spartans could not push a run across in the bottom of the seventh so we headed for extra innings tied 6-6.

In the top of the eighth, NCTC used a two out double to plate two runners and take an 8-6 lead. That brought the Lady Spartans to the plate needing two to tie and three to win. With one out and two runners on base, freshman Hannah Ekse from Perham unloaded and sent an absolute bomb deep over the left field fence for a walk off, three run home run, and the Lady Spartan 9-8 win.

Alexa Mortenson pitched all 8 innings for the Lady Spartans for her third win of the year. Allison Stafki had another strong performance at the plate getting three hits and scoring two runs. Carlson also had three hits and scored three runs and knocked in three runs. The hero of the game, Hannah Ekse, had three hits and runs three runs batted in.

In Saturday's second game, the Lady Spartans never got going and lost to Dakota College Bottineau 10-0.

The Lady Spartans are now 5-2 on the season and hope to begin divisional play this weekend at home.