NAPLES, Fla. - The Martin Luther College softball team closed its spring break Florida trip with a two-game split for the fourth consecutive day. The Knights won the opener against SUNY Canton 9-5, but lost the second game 5-2 against Nazareth.
MLC 9, SUNY Canton 5
Brittany Denn's big day at the plate pushed the Knights to a 9-5 win in game one.
Denn finished the day 3-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored. Her three RBI came on a three-run home run (first of her career) in the third inning, and she added a double and eventually scored on a passed ball in the fourth inning.Â
MLC finished the game with 13 hits, with
Audrey Timm (three hits, two runs scored) and
Kayla Rosenbaum (two hits, two RBI) joining Denn with big performances.
Kelsey Birschbach also drove in a pair of runs with a double, while
Brett Burger's sacrifice fly capped a six-run third inning in which 10 MLC hitters went to the plate.Â
Rebecca Pruss (4-1) earned her fourth win in four starts on the trip, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits in 6.0 innings. She also struck out a season-high five batters.Â
Nazareth 5, MLC 2
MLC was unable to finish the trip on a high note thanks to a 5-2 loss to Nazareth in game two.
After committing only five errors in the previous five games, defensive miscues were an issue for the Knights as they committed six errors that led to four unearned runs.
Morgan Palubicki (0-7) continued her tough luck on the trip for the Knights as she allowed only three unearned runs on five hits in 4.0 innings in defeat.
Trailing 3-0 in the top of the fifth inning, the Knights cut the deficit to 3-2 thanks to RBI from Timm and Rosenbaum that scored Burger and
Rebecca Doering, but that would be as close as the Knights would get as Nazareth added two more runs in the bottom of the inning to provide the cushion it would need.
MLC finished it second annual trip to Florida 4-4, and moved to 4-8 overall following Monday's split.
The Knights are scheduled to return to action on March 30 in a UMAC doubleheader at St. Scholastica.Â
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