DUBUQUE, Iowa – Today at Faber-Clark Field, the host Loras College Duhawks (19-6) swept the Mount Mary University softball team in their doubleheader. The Duhawks took game one by a score of 9-1, then defeated the Blue Angels 11-0 in the second contest.
In the day's first game, the Blue Angels (6-14) and Duhawks matched each other pitch for pitch. Audrey Beck (Fr./Costa Mesa, Calif.) tallied the first hit of the game out of her second spot of the lineup, but then neither team gave up another hit until the top of the third.
That is when Amelia Flint (Jr./Whitefish Bay, Wis.) and Jess Runge (Sr./Freedom, Wis.) hit back-to-back one-out singles and each scampered up to scoring position on the subsequent fielding error. The Blue Angels would strand both runners and lose their early scoring opportunity.
The Duhawks opened things up in their turn in the third with five hits and two errors that would net the first four runs of the game. The errors came early in the inning and allowed the hard-hitting Duhawks to wear down starter Hannah Harnsberger (Fr./Hillsboro, Ore.) in her tenth start of the season.
MMU got their lone run of the contest on a lead-off homerun courtesy of Sidnee Turnage (Fr./Hesperia, Calif.) in the top of the fourth. That could be a sign of her bat heating up as she hit three doubles in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
Stephanie Norman (Fr./Noblesville, Ind.) came in during the fourth inning to settle things down, but the Duhawks greeted the rookie hurler with three straight base hits, and expanded the lead to 7-1. Loras then ended the game early in the fifth inning when two walks and two base hits stretched the lead to 9-1.
Harnsberger was dealt the loss and is now 3-7 on the season. She finished with 3.0 innings pitched surrendering five hits and four earned runs. Norman finished with 1.0 innings, giving up five hits, five runs and four earned runs.
In game two, Adrianna Nester (Fr./Anaheim, Calif.) got the start in the circle. The Duhawks promptly loaded the bases in the opening frame, but Nester escaped the inning surrendering just one run without the courtesy of a hit.
Loras inflated that lead in the second inning with four more runs off two hits, one error and one walk. Megan Larson's two-RBI double may have put the game out of reach making things 5-0 going into the third.
The Duhawks were able to plate six more runners in the next two innings thus ending the game after five innings with the score 11-0.
Beck led the Blue Angels offense in game two going 2-of-2 at the plate, both hits were doubles. Michaela Buchholz (Fr./Germantown, Wis.) and Jordan Green (Fr./The Woodlands, Texas) were each 1-of-2 at the dish to round up MMU's hits.
Nester (2-6) went 3.1 innings, striking out one and surrendering 11 earned runs off eight hits and seven walked batters. Harnsberger came in for Nester in the fourth to get the final two outs after two Duhawk hits.
The Blue Angels will not waste any time as they get back in action Tue. Apr. 11 against the Lakeland University Muskies (9-13). Live stats will be made available for the doubleheader which begins at 3:00 pm. Those links can be found at mtmaryathletics.com.
