CEDAR CITY, Utah – The University of North Dakota softball team dropped two games in a doubleheader, by scores of 13-12 and 9-5, against Southern Utah on Friday afternoon.
With the losses, North Dakota now falls to 4-14 in Big Sky competition and is officially eliminated from the Big Sky Championship race. Southern Utah clinched the final spot in the conference tournament, improving to 6-11 in league play.
The Fighting Hawks jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first game, but then found themselves down 6-2 after three and down 11-4 after five. UND responded with a huge outing in the top of the sixth, scoring eight runs to take a 12-11 lead.
North Dakota strung together 11 hits to record the eight runs before the Thunderbirds could get out of the inning. Unfortunately, UND could not hold onto the lead as Southern Utah scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to take back the lead, 13-12.
Highlighting the eight-run blitz were a two-run homer by Megan Keegan, and two-RBI doubles by both Kaylin VanDomelen and Taylor Hansen.
UND recorded a season-high 19 hits in the game, while only conceding 15. However, SUU earned nine walks and had three batters hit.
In game two, North Dakota again put runs on the board in the first inning, this time jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Keegan hit her second home run of the day, a three-run shot with one out to give UND the strong start.
But the nightcap had a similar story line as the Thunderbirds put up four in the home half of the inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Emily Bell led off the third with a double and was later driven home with a base hit from Autumn Cervantez to tie the game up.
However, the pesky Thunderbirds would not go away quietly, and scored five in the bottom half of the inning for a 9-4 lead.
North Dakota scored its last run of the contest in the sixth, as a single off the bat of Bell drove home Keegan from second, to make the final score 9-5.
As a team, UND hit .446 on the day, as seven batters hit above .300, including five that hit over .500. Natalie Gerber led the team going 6-for-6 (.667) with one double and three runs scored. Taylor Hansen went 5-for-8 (.625) with three RBI's and Nicole Babrowski went 4-for-7 (.571) and had a .727 on-base percentage. Keegan added two home runs to her career total and went 5-for-9 (.556) on the day, while Emily Bell hit a solid .500 with three hits.
North Dakota closes out the 2016 season tomorrow afternoon with a final game against Southern Utah. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. (CT).
