FAYETTE, Iowa — The Minnesota State University Moorhead softball team turned a game-ending double play to help preserve a 5-4 win over Upper Iowa in Game 2 of a doubleheader on Saturday in Fayette, Iowa. The win gave MSUM a split on the day as the Peacocks won Game 1 12-4.
In the second game, junior left fielder Shay Weber was 4-for-4, including a triple, for her first career four-hit game. She scored two runs and had an RBI. Senior center fielder Elizabeth Johnson was 2-for-4 with a run scored while junior infielder Samantha Gjerde was 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. Freshman shortstop Miah Hartvigsen was 1-for-3 with two RBI while junior third baseman Kaiya Sundeen was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Designated hitter Ally Helgoe was 2-for-3 with a double.
Junior pitcher Anna Lang picked up her second win of the season with a complete game. She allowed four runs (three earned), striking out four and walking four.
MSUM was clinging to a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh and Upper Iowa had loaded the bases with one out, with the winning run at second. Lang got McKay to ground to Sundeen at third, who fired to McNeilly at home for the second out and to Gjerde at first to end the game.
"It was a good bounce-back from Game 1," MSUM head coach Amanda Reckamp said. "We put ourselves in a position to stay ahead and came up with hits when we needed them. Anna kept us in that game on the mound and induced a ground ball to get us that game-ending double play."
Gjerde drove in MSUM's first run with an RBI single in the first, and her double-play ball scored the Dragons' second run in the third. MSUM put together a crucial three-run rally in the fifth, as Weber drove in Sundeen with an RBI single and Hartvigsen followed moments later with a key two-run single.
In the opener, Hartvigsen was 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Gjerde was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored while McNeilly was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Helgoe and Sundeen had hits; Sundeen's was a double.
Freshman Reece Dahl took the loss for MSUM, giving up eight earned runs in 4.2 innings. She walked six and struck out one. Sophomore Kiley Washnieski allowed four runs, three earned, in 0.2 innings.
MSUM led 2-0 after the first thanks to an RBI single from Gjerde and an RBI double from Hartvigsen. Upper Iowa battled back to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame.
McNeilly scored on an error in the third to give MSUM a 3-2 lead. The Dragons were down 4-3 going into the fifth before Hartvigsen's RBI single tied the game in the fifth.
Upper Iowa scored eight unanswered runs over the next two innings to secure the win.
MSUM hosts Minot State for a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Wednesday at the Nemzek Softball Field.
