St. Bonifacius, MN - The MLC softball team took a split for the second consecutive day of the Crown Crossover on Saturday. The Knights lost their first game to Crown
17-6 in five innings
, but bounced back with their second conference win of the season, beating Minnesota-Morris 9-2.
Crown 17, MLC 6
Crown imposed their will early on in this game, scoring six runs in the first inning after the Knights had gotten on the scoreboard in the top of the inning. MLC would score a run in every inning, but the fifth, coming up with nice at-bats. However, the offense was unable to keep pace with the offensive prowess of the Polars lineup.
The Polars would tack on another six-run inning in the bottom of the fourth, hitting multiple singles to jumpstart the big inning.
MLC recorded seven hits as a team and senior
Lisa Hoffer had another three-hit game, while
Amelia Thiel had two RBI to lead the Knights.
MLC 9, Minnesota-Morris 2
Horn would shrug off the previous game against Crown, with one of her better pitching performances of the season against Minnesota-Morris. Horn went the distance, only allowing two runs on 9 hits. The sophomore forced the Cougars into multiple groundouts and put a halt to any Morris comeback attempts.
The bats came out swinging for MLC as the Knights posted four runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Anna Busch drove int he first run with a single, while
Lexi Fischer added on to the lead with a two-run double.
The game was in striking distance still for the Cougars heading into the sixth, but they missed their opportunity to trim the deficit, going scoreless in the top of the inning. MLC took advantage of it and scored four more runs in the bottom of the sixth to fully separate themselves from the Cougars.
The Knights had six batters with multi-hit games and once again showed improvement in each of their at-bats. Fischer and Thiel had three hits a piece, while also driving in three runs.
The Knights move to (5-15, 2-6) on the season with the win against Morris. Up next for MLC is a doubleheader at Bethany on Wednesday April 19. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
