SIOUX FALLS – Wrapping up an eight-game home stand, University of Sioux Falls Softball split a doubleheader with Wayne State on Tuesday afternoon. The Cougars (21-18, 8-6 NSIC) couldn't overcome WSC's timely hits in game one and suffered a 7-5 loss. In game two, Emma Schifferle connected on a two-run homerun to break a tie and power USF to a 5-2 victory. The Cougars head to the road for the weekend, taking on Minot State and University of Mary on Friday, April 14 and Saturday, April 15, respectively.
 
Wayne State 7, Sioux Falls 5
In a game that featured 32 hits, Sioux Falls came up short as Wayne State handed the Cougars a 7-5 loss in game one of their doubleheader. Kerrigan Hoshaw was saddled with the loss, dropping her season record to 8-7, while Jasmine Ragusi led the USF offense with three hits and Lindsey Mossman hit her first career homerun.
 
Wayne State (8-30, 2-12 NSIC) recorded 11 hits in the first three innings, building a 5-0 lead before the Cougars were able to get on the board. In the bottom of the third, Mossman hit a one-out homerun to score herself and Emma Schifferle. Ragusi and Hoshaw followed with base hits and Sydney Nieveen drove in pinch runners Megan Peterson and Bailey Burnes with a double down the leftfield line, bringing the Cougars within one run, 5-4 after three innings.
 
Courtney Mathews relieved Hoshaw in the circle and worked out of a bases loaded jam to keep USF within one. The Wildcats expanded on their lead with two runs in the fifth, building a three-run cushion. Despite hits from Breanna Black, Britni Broussard and Schifferle over the next two innings, USF couldn't draw closer.
 
In the final at-bat, USF pushed across a run on an Emily Hove fielder's choice, but left the bases loaded ri finalize their 7-5 loss.
 
Sioux Falls 5, Wayne State 2
Emma Schifferle and Sydney Nieveen both went 3-for-4, but it was Schifferle's two-run homerun in the sixth inning that propelled Sioux Falls to a 5-2 win over Wayne State in game two of the doubleheader. After replacing Breanna Black in the fifth inning, Courtney Mathews allowed just one hit in two and two-thirds innings of work, earning the win to push her record to 8-6 on the year.
 
Sioux Falls struck first, plating a run in the third. Schifferle and Nieveen both singled before Jasmine Ragusi drove in one with a double to left centerfield. After a scoreless second, WSC tied the game with a run in the third. Wayne State took their first lead with a run in the fifth, but USF was quick to answer.
 
Nieveen led off with her second double of the day and she scored two batters later, taking advantage of a throwing error after Kerrigan Hoshaw's single. With the game tied, Mathews settled in, allowing just one hit over the final two frames.
 
USF broke the game open in the sixth inning, scoring three times to take the lead for good. Schifferle launched a 2-2 pitch over the leftfield wall for a two-run homerun, her second of the season. Nieveen kept the rally alive with a single and she scored two batters later on Hoshaw's hard-hit single to third base.