Winona State University women’s softball team had four Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) matches this week, where they won two of them. After this back-to-back play, they have moved to third position on the NSIC leaderboard.
On Saturday, April 12 the Warriors faced Minot State University for two matches. They lost both of them 6-2 and 9-1.
On Sunday, April 13 they faced the University of Mary for two matches as well, and this time, they managed to win both. In the second match of the day, they won after five innings due to the score advantage.
On Saturday, in the opening match, the Warriors opened the scoreboard with one run in the second inning. Minot State countered the score by scoring two runs in the third inning. Later, they scored one more run in the fourth and three runs in the fifth inning. The Warriors were unfortunately not able to keep up with the momentum. They scored just one extra run in the seventh inning.
Later that evening, in the second matchup of the night, Minot State gave one of their best plays of the season. Their pitcher, Jasmine Blizzard, prevented the batters of Winona State from scoring more than one run.
Warrior batter Tiegan Mancuso explained the batting situation of the match. She explained that both teams had similar hits, but the final execution for runs was less than perfect for Winona State.
On the other hand, Minot State batters scored three runs in the second and sixth innings. They also scored one run in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. This is one of the biggest margin defeats for Winona State this season.
Warrior coach Greg Jones said, “We always got tomorrow. We are riding a two-game losing streak, but we will show up tomorrow and put the uniform on, go play as hard as we can and come right back out.
Sunday was a comeback day for the Warriors. In the first match against the University of Mary, it was a little slow for both teams. The Warriors scored just one run in the second and seventh innings. On the other hand, the University of Mary scored a run in the last inning.
In this match, Alyssa Woelfel and Sam Keller both scored runs for the Warriors. Jayda Berg also showed her skill in this match as the pitcher for the Warriors.
Winona State batters made their mark in the second match of the day. They scored three runs in the first and the fifth innings, and two runs in the second inning. The University of Mary scored zero throughout the entire match.
In this match, for the Warriors, Keller and Mancuso scored two runs each and Bryn Elsenpeter scored a home run. Izzy Howe was the pitcher who restricted the University of Mary in the high-scoring match.
Winona State has eight more matches before the playoffs. As the top 10 teams qualify for the playoffs, things are beginning to look simple for them now.
Next week, the Warriors will face Southwest Minnesota State University and Augustana University for two matches each, both of which will require them to pack up and leave home.
The matches against Southwest Minnesota State will be on Friday, April 18. The first match will begin at 1:00pm and the second match will begin at 3:00 pm.
The matches against Southwest Minnesota State will be on Saturday, April 19. The first match will begin at 12:00pm and the second match will begin at 2:00pm.
