Senior third baseman Priscilla Quintana laced lead-off homer to left center field in the bottom of the tenth to walk Sioux Falls softball off with a 4-3 victory over Northern State and lift the Cougars to a split with the visiting Wolves on Sunday afternoon at Sherman Park in Sioux Falls.
The Cougars dropped game one to Northern State, 5-2.
USF ends the season at 15-27 overall, 10-18 in NSIC play, while the Wolves moved to 19-23 (11-13).
Game one was scoreless until the top of the fourth, when the NSU capitalized on a costly two-out error that kept the inning alive. The Wolves scored two runs when the Cougar second baseman booted a routine grounder. The visitors then tagged Cougar starting pitcher Bailey Bouman for together three straight hits and scored three more runs to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
The Cougars got on the board with Quintana's RBI groundout in the bottom half of the inning, but were held in check by NSU ace Kami Smesmo, who yielded just four hits in the contest. USF showed life in the bottom of the seventh when an infield error plated Shelby Thompson, who doubled to start, but the Cougars recorded three straight outs to end the game.
Bouman (6-10) took the loss in the circle, allowing five runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
Quintana drove in both of the Cougars' runs. Bouman, Thompson, Shannon Daly and Erin Scott each had a hit.
The Cougars came out swinging in game two long before Quintana's homer walked USF to a season-ending victory. Scott led off the first with a single and was driven home with Quintana's outfield base knock. The Cougars got their second run when Quintana scored on Taylor Boshart's RBI groundout.
Scott doubled home Samantha Kane in the second to give USF the 3-0 lead.
Northern State ripped a single to lead off the third and followed with consecutive two-out base hits to scratch across its first run and tied things up in the fifth with a one-out line drive RBI double and sacrifice fly.
Neither team scored through the end of regulation, forcing extra innings. Both sides went quietly in the eighth and ninth innings and the Wolves were limited to a harmless single by USF pitcher Amanda Walters in the top of the tenth.
Quintana led off the bottom half of the tenth and the senior's final swing in a Cougar uniform was one to remember. She concluded her collegiate career by belting one over the fence to give USF the 4-3 walkoff victory.
It was the only hit allowed by Smesmo (11-13), who had relieved Stephanie Horkey in the fifth inning.
Quintana went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored in her final game. Kane and Scott each tallied multi-hit outings while Boshart was 1-for-4 and provided one RBI. The Cougars were out-hit 10-9 by Northern State.
Walters (9-16) went the distance for the Cougars, yielding three runs on nine hits with four K's and four walks in the 10-inning complete game victory.
In between the games, second-year head coach Travis Lape honored his six seniors. These six seniors are Janni Brylla, Naomi Tesar, Shelby Thompson, Shae Reinke, Priscilla Quintana and Katie Larson.
