St. Paul, Minn. – The Crown softball team kicked off the UMAC Crossover event with two games in the West St. Paul Dome on Thursday.  Crown fell to Northwestern 5-3 in game one and thumped North Central by a score of 16-6 in game two.

Crown started the day with a disastrous first inning, giving up five unearned runs while committing four errors to spot the Eagles a 5-0 start.

After settling down, Sarah Petkau would strike out three and allow only four hits the rest of the way, but Crown could not come up with the big hit and only got as close as 5-3.

The Storm collected 11 hits for the game, led by Marissa Becerra who went 3-4 and Alisha Promis who went 3-3 with a pair of RBI
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It was a tough loss to swallow as the Eagles pushed across five runs without a single RBI.

Crown bounced back in the second game, putting up crooked numbers in each of the first two innings, jumping out to a 14-0 lead on the Rams.

Cearra Dulaney pitched all five innings of the run-rule shortened game, recording nine strikeouts in the process.

The Storm played 14 players in the game, with Kate McLaughlin doing the most damage, going 3-4 with three runs and three RBI.  Cassidy Valenzuela hit another double, her conference leading sixth of the year, and Becerra added to her conference leading hit total, collecting her 21^st hit of the season.

The Storm will return to the dome tomorrow morning for two more important UMAC games against Northland and St. Scholastica.