Huskies split in battle with Dragons

Saturday, May 8

St. Cloud, Minn.

12 p.m.

St. Cloud State

24-13, 13-10

Minnesota State University Moorhead

8-32, 6-20

MSU-Moorhead

St. Cloud State

Maya Keating went 2-2 in game two with two runs and two walks.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

5/8/2021 5:11:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

ST. CLOUD, MINN. - There are softball games where everything goes a team's way. Near perfect pitching. Destructive, clutch offensive. A defense that resembles the North Wall. Every facet of the game is about as good as it can get.

Then, there are games where nothing goes a team's way. Luck is seemingly on the opponent's side, and nothing, not even the bloop of a single or the outside corners, seem to go a team's way.

The St. Cloud State University softball team experienced both situations Saturday afternoon, as the Huskies earned a Saturday split with Minnesota State University-Moorhead. St. Cloud State dominated in every facet of game one, cruising to a 8-0, five inning slaying of the Dragons. Game two was a different story, as MSU-Moorhead pulled off an unlikely rally to defeat the Huskies 13-8 in game two.

Things went St. Cloud State's way early and often in game one, as the Huskies took an early 3-0 lead over the Dragons in the bottom of the first. It was again the top of St. Cloud State's order that ignited the offensive burst, as Brooke Bowlin (Chaska, Minn. / Holy Family) opened the game with a triple to left field to give the Huskies a runner on third with no outs. She and teammate Megan Conrads (Lakeville, Minn. / Lakeville South) scored on an RBI single by Raven Vanden Langenberg (Seymour, Wis. / Seymour), giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead with zero outs on the board.

Holly Weinberger (Waconia, Minn. / Waconia) eventually made it 3-0, as her single up the middle scored Vanden Langenberg for the multi-run lead. Though that would have been enough for the Huskies, they went ahead and scored four more runs in the bottom of the second, extended their lead to 7-0 after two innings of play. This particular scoring barrage started with Sydney Trees (Prior Lake, Minn. / Prior Lake), who was hit by a pitch before stealing second during Maya Keating's (Wheaton, Ill. / Wheaton-Warrensville). The catcher later scored on a RBI single from Bowlin to extend St. Cloud State's lead to 4-0.

Again, a 4-0 lead would have been enough, but the Huskies simply were not satisfied, as Jasmin Estrada (Litchfield, Minn. / Litchfield) hit a two-out single to score Bowlin for a 5-0 lead. She and Conrads later scored on a RBI single by Haley McFarlane (Swisher, Iowa / Cedar Rapids Prairie), making it 7-0 Huskies after two innings of play.

Neither team scored in the third, but an RBI single by McFarlane in the fourth clinched an eight run lead for St. Cloud State. According to NCAA rules, with an 8-0 lead, the game could end after the top of the fifth inning, so long as first year starter Trinity Junker (Lindstrom, Minn. / Chisago Lakes) took care of business in the circle. She made quick work of MSU-Moorhead's first two batters, getting Ally Helgoe to pop out to the shortstop and Ashtyn Jurging to strike out swinging to bring up the Dragons nine hitter.

MSU-Moorhead put up a small rally with two outs in the top of the fifth, as Kaiya Sundeen blooped a single over Keating's head before leadoff batter Elizabeth Johnson was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Junker, though, remained cool and collected in the circle and got the Dragons two hitter, Shay Weber, to strike out looking, securing the 8-0 lead for the Huskies.

Three different St. Cloud State student-athletes recorded two hits in game one, including Bowlin, Estrada and McFarlane. Bowlin and Estrada both scored two runs and tallied an RBI at the plate, while McFarlane led the team with three RBI.

Junker earned her fifth win of the season in game one, as she surrendered three hits and struck out a season high 10 batters en route to victory. Additionally, Junker lowered her ERA to 1.99 in the five inning effort and extended her scoreless streak to two consecutive games.

Everything was seemingly going the Huskies way in game two, as they led MSU-Moorhead 2-0 after three innings of play. St. Cloud State then took a seemingly definitive 8-1 lead after four, as back-to-back home runs by Estrada and Weinberger helped the Huskies score six runs on three hits and one Dragon error for the big seven run inning. That's when things started to go array for St. Cloud State, as MSU-Moorhead put together a big inning of its own. In fact, the Dragons scored seven runs on five hits and two Husky errors to even the score 8-8.

St. Cloud State threatened in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings but were kept off the scoreboard both times. Still, a walk off seemed imminent for the Huskies, as things were smooth sailing to start the seventh. Ace Sydney LaPoint (Green Bay, Wis. / Bay Port) controlled the game and the MSU-Moorhead batters, as she got the first two batters of the inning to groundout and fly out to the second baseman and seemingly got the third batter to ground out to the shortstop. An uncharacteristic error, though, resulted in a two-out base runner for the Dragons, who went ahead and scored five unearned runs to take a 13-8 lead.

The Huskies seemed prime for a seventh inning rally, though, as Trees led off the bottom half with a double and Keating ripped a single to center to put runners on the corners with no outs. Unfortunately, the two base runners were stranded despite battles by Bowlin, Conrads and Vanden Langenberg, resulting in the 13-8 loss for St. Cloud State.

Weinberger was the team's top hitter in game two, as she was 4-4 at the plate with one run and two RBI. Keating also posted a 1.000 batting average, as she went 2-2 with two runs and two walks, while Bowlin, Vanden Langenberg, Estrada and Trees all tallied at least one hit. Bowlin additionally made history Saturday afternoon, as she broke Abby Bunnel's record for career stolen bases in the first inning of game two.

With the split, the Huskies overall record now stands at 24-14 and they are 13-11 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play. St. Cloud State will close the regular season, as the team hosts Northern State University at 12 and 2 p.m. at Selke Field in St. Cloud, Minnesota.