DECORAH, Iowa – The UW-Stevens Point softball team handed No. 5 Luther College its first loss of the season, as the teams split a non-conference doubleheader on Monday afternoon with the Pointers winning the opener 8-6 before the Norse took game two 8-3.
UW-Stevens Point 8, No. 5 Luther 6 | Box UW-Stevens Point (8-15) scored the first eight runs of the game and held off Luther (25-1) in the final three innings to snap the Norse's 24-game winning streak. The Pointers pounded out a season-high 14 hits, led by Jordan Schreiner and
Bailie Sheahan (Salem, WI/Wilmot Union), who each went 3-for-4 at the plate.
"Luther College is a great program and a great team," head coach
Ashley Steltenpohl said. "Going into the games, we knew we had to put runs up on the board to compete because they're a great hitting team. We had a lot of clutch hits in big situations and I couldn't be happier for our student-athletes."
UWSP opened the scoring in the third, scoring runs on an error and a two-out single by Schreiner. The Pointers stretched their lead to 3-0 on a sacrifice fly by
Jodi Vanderford (Kenosha, WI/Mary D. Bradford), who had a career-high three RBI in the game.
UW-Stevens Point started the fifth inning with five consecutive hits, leading to a five-run inning that gave the visitors an 8-0 lead.
Paige Allen (South Elgin, IL/South Elgin) knocked a two-run double to center, Sheahan added a run-scoring double and Vanderford capped the inning with a two-out, two-run single.
Luther responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and added two in the seventh.
Miranda Morrison (Madison, WI/East) picked up win number four of the season on the mound with five innings of work before
Sydney Gorges (Hortonville, WI/Hortonville) tossed the final two innings.
No. 5 Luther 8, UW-Stevens Point 3 | Box Luther got off to a quick start, scoring seven runs in the first two innings of game two to bounce back from its first defeat of the season. Schreiner had another three-hit performance for UW-Stevens Point.
After the Norse scored twice in the first, Carli Radil capped a five-run second inning with a grand slam to center field to give Luther a 7-0 advantage. The teams traded runs over the next two innings, as the Pointers got on the board on a RBI single by
Katie Uhlenbrauck (Hortonville, WI/Hortonville).
Maddie Sawdey (Medford, WI/Medford) had her second two-RBI game of the season, adding a two-run single in the sixth. Morrison and Bre Ellison held Luther to one run in four innings of combined relief for the Pointers.
"We pounded out 10 hits but lacked the big hit that we got in the first game to score," Steltenpohl said of game two. "We've had glimpses of being a good team and in game one we put together a well-played game. Overall, it was a great series for us to learn, test and compete in."
UW-Stevens Point hosts No. 14 UW-Whitewater on Wednesday at McCarty Memorial Field with games at 3 and 5 p.m.
