Winona State University finished their week with 5 wins among the 6 matches. Unfortunately, their one loss caused them the second position in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

The first series of the week was on Tuesday, April 18th, 2023, against Wayne State College. It was a 2-match series where both the matches were won by Winona State. This was their only home match for this week.

In the first match of the series Winona State won by 11 – 4 runs. In this match, Winona State pitcher Abby Smith struck out six Wayne State batters while walking just two. Smith scattered eight hits over seven innings and allowed four runs, all earned. 

When Smith was interviewed after the game, she gave the credit to the batters. She said, “Our offense exploded in the middle of the game, changing the course of the game. Our offense has been incredible during the conference this year and even though we started the game down, we all knew we would come back.”

In the second game, the story was similar. Winona State won by 10 – 5 runs. In these two matches, Libby Neveau hit a home run in each one.

After this series, Winona State was in the top 2 of the NSIC leaderboard with 13 wins and 3 losses. Behind them was Minnesota State Duluth, in the 3rd number, with the same number of losses.

The second series was an away match for Winona State against Minot State University. It took place on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Minot State was the only team that gave the test of defeat to Winona State in the second match.

The game changer of the first game was Smith again for Winona State. She scattered six Beaver hits over seven full innings to claim the win as Winona State saw a two-run sixth inning proved to be the difference in the game.

The second game was on the side of Winona State in the first 3 innings. From the 4th inning, Minot State took the lead which took the result to a 3 – 5 runs loss for Winona State.

The week’s third series for Winona State was against the University of Mary. This series was a high-scoring one as in the second match Winona State won 19 -7.

In this first match, Libby and Macy Brodin scored a home run individually for Winona State University. Smith was again good with her pitching. She scattered five of the University of Mary’s hits over five full innings of work, striking out seven, while not allowing a walk.

In the second game of the series, an early lead from the 2nd and 3rd gave the Warriors a big win. Though the University of Mary tried to bring a comeback in the 4th inning, it was not enough.

Next week is the last week before the Conference playoffs. The Warriors will have 6 matches and all of the matches are at home.

Warrior coach Gregory Jones was confident about the rest of the matches and said, “There will be a lot of shifting in the standings, but I still think we have yet to play our best softball.  If we can put it all together over the next week, we should have a very good chance to remain near the top of the standings.”

On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Winona State will face Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2 matches. One of them will start at 2:00 pm and the other one at 4:00 pm.

Saturday, April 29, 2023, will be a big match day for the Warriors as they will be facing Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Minnesota State Moorhead is just right behind Winona State on the NSIC leaderboard.

The last two matches for Winona State will be on Sunday, April 30, 2023. They will play against Northern State University to finish off.