WAYNE, Neb. – The University of Sioux Falls softball team dropped both ends of a Thursday doubleheader at Wayne State, falling 4-3 in eight innings in the opener before a 7-4 setback in game two at the Pete Chapman Complex.
The Cougars moved to 22-23 overall and 10-10 in NSIC play after two tightly contested games in which Sioux Falls held leads in both matchups but could not close out the Wildcats.
Game One: Wayne State 4, Sioux Falls 3 (8 inn.)
The opener turned into a back-and-forth battle that needed extra innings to decide a winner.
Sioux Falls broke through first in the fourth inning. After Sammie Radish reached and Andie Suhai got aboard on an error, Addison Heule delivered the biggest hit of the frame, drilling a double to left field that scored both runners. Heule later advanced to third on a throwing error, giving the Cougars a 2-0 advantage.
Wayne State answered immediately in the bottom half. The Wildcats took advantage of a pair of Cougar errors and a two-run single from pitcher Kennadi Borngrebe to flip the score to 3-2.
The Cougars kept battling and found the equalizer in the seventh when Emma Kristof launched a solo home run to left field, knotting the score at 3-3 and sending the game to extra innings.
In the eighth, Charlie Pryor tripled down the right-field line with two outs, but Sioux Falls could not bring the go-ahead run home. Wayne State then answered in the bottom half, using a two-out RBI single from Taylor Coleman to walk off the 4-3 win.
Kristof led the Cougar offense with two hits, including the game-tying homer, while Pryor added two hits and a triple. Maddi Duncan went the distance in the circle, allowing four runs, three earned, while striking out seven.
Game Two: Wayne State 7, Sioux Falls 4
Sioux Falls jumped out early in the nightcap, but Wayne State answered with a big first inning and never fully gave the lead back.
The Cougars scored first when Meghan Jochimsen came home on a Wayne State error in the top of the first. The Wildcats responded with four runs in the bottom half, capitalizing on a string of hits and Cougar miscues to take control.
Sioux Falls trimmed the deficit in the third when Jochimsen scored again, and the Cougars got within one run in the fifth on Kyra Knudtson's two-run double to right center that made it 5-4.
Wayne State answered again in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run single from Dreibelbis to push the margin back to three, and the Wildcats held Sioux Falls scoreless the rest of the way to secure the sweep.
Jochimsen scored three times in game two and stole three bases, while Knudtson drove in two runs. Heule and Kristof also added hits for the Cougars.
Key Cougars
Up Next
Sioux Falls continues NSIC play this weekend as the Cougars host crosstown foe, Augustana, at the Sanford Diamonds on Sunday, April 19th with first pitch scheduled for 2pm with game two to follow. USF Softball will recognize their alumni this Sunday as well as honor USF Softball Commit, Paige Roessner, during their annual Mental Health Awareness series.
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