Little River, SC -  The Martin Luther College Knights bounced back with their first win of the season, defeating Northern Vermont-Johnson 11-7 and then went back onto the diamond to secure their second victory over Albion 2-1 on Saturday, March 4. Both games were played all the way through to the seventh inning and the pair of wins snap the four-game losing skid that MLC had to start the season.

    MLC 11, NVU 7

    In the first game, MLC was ready for the 9 a.m. Eastern time start and caught on to the Badgers pitching from the early get go. The Knights scored 3 runs at the top of the first inning and followed that up with another 3 runs to take a 6-0 lead in the second inning, which was the largest lead of the season for the Knights. Northern Vermont countered their 6-0 deficit by plating 7 runs of their own to take the lead 7-6 after 3 innings.

    The Knights stayed patient in the count and despite striking out 11 times, found success in the later innings and scored 2 runs in the fifth and 3 runs in the sixth innings to hold off the Badgers for their first win.

    Jordyn Heckendorf had a stellar game, going 4-4 at the plate with 4 RBI with multiple extra base hits, including a double and a triple. The Outfielder displayed her speed on the base pad and willed her team to victory. Lisa Hoffer also had one of her better performances of the young season, going 2-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 runs batted in. 

    Madison Uhlenbrauck (1-1) snagged her first win of the season and pitched 5 innings, while only giving up 2 earned runs.


    MLC 2, Albion 1 

    While the first game on Saturday saw a high scoring affair, the second contest saw a pitchers duel between the two squads starting pitchers. Albion's Gabrielle Hirkaway, threw a complete game and allowed 2 earned runs, while striking out 6 MLC batters. The Knights' received their best outing of the season from Jessica Horn (1-3), who demonstrated great resilience with a bounce back performance from yesterday's games. The pitcher also threw a complete game, allowing only 1 run with 3 strikeouts. Horn also showed great command, throwing only one walk in seven innings on the mound. 

    The Britons scored broke the scoreless tie with an RBI single from Megan Maiuri in the third inning. MLC would remain with out a run scored until the top of the seventh inning, when Hannah Ott drove in two runs with an RBI single into right field. The two-out base hit brought in Hoffer and Horn, proving to be the difference. After Horn scored the winning run, the pitcher then closed the deal in the bottom of the seventh after the Britons got the tying run aboard.

    MLC head coach, Becca Doering, was thrilled with her team's performance on Saturday and said, "These games were an all around team effort. Everyone did their job and things fell into place. This is only the beginning of what this team can do."

    The Knights (2-4) return to action on Sunday, March 5, where they will play another two games against Penn State-Altoona and Blackburn College for their third day of the South Carolina trip.