St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Crown softball team continues to find themselves in extremely exciting games, a trend that continued with Wednesday's double-header against Martin Luther. The Storm won game one in walk-off fashion, then fell in extra innings by a single run in a pair of games that were not short on drama or runs scored.
Game one was a back-and-forth affair that saw the two teams score ten runs apiece through four innings with each team recording a five-run inning early in the game.
Huge credit belongs to
Lindsay Glover who came on in relief and threw four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits with one strikeout to eventually earn the win.
The game remained tied going into the last of the seventh, setting up the dramatic finish.
Abbey Underdahl doubled to start the inning and after a pop out,
Liz Kemp delivered the walk-off base hit, scoring Underdahl on a single to left field.
For the game, Crown recorded 16 hits, including doubles from Underdahl, Kemp,
Kiara Hurt, and
Maria Lilienthal (who also tripled in the game). Hurt led the way with three hits and three runs scored, while Kemp and
Ashley Earick each recorded a team-high three RBI. Nine different players recorded a hit in the game, with six players having multi-hit games.
Game two was equally exciting, but unfortunately, it was the Knights who would prevail in extra innings.
The Knights scored six times through the first three innings, countered by three runs for the Storm. The two teams then traded single runs over the next two innings to leave the score 7-4 in favor of Martin Luther through five innings.
Crown would get two in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to a Lilienthal double and a
Maliya Martinez single, but still trailed by one heading into the final frame.
After the first two batters failed to reach Crown was down to their final out. Lilienthal kept things alive with a single up the middle and then reached second on a passed ball. After
Kiara Hurt walked, Martinez put the ball in play and forced an MLC error that allowed Lilienthal to score the tying run. Unfortunately, Crown couldn't repeat their walk-off heroics from game one and things went to extra innings.
The Knight scored a single run in the top half of the eighth and Crown again saw the first two batters in the bottom half make outs.
Ally Adams, who set a new single-game record with five hits in the contest scratched out an infield single to keep things alive, but a bouncer back to the pitcher ended the game with MLC prevailing 8-7.
Abbie Carroll did a fine job in relief in game two, but was a tough-luck loser after tossing 5.1 innings with four strikeouts and just two earned runs.
Crown won't get much rest, enjoying a day off on Thursday before a game Friday and two on Saturday in Mankato.
