THE FIRST PITCH
UMD softball (4-0) will go from one dome to another this weekend as it heads back out on the road to participate in the St. Cloud State Dome Invitational. It all starts on Saturday, Feb. 11 with a slate of Mary (3:00 p.m.) and Bemidji State (5:30 p.m.) The Bulldogs open Sunday, Feb. 12 with a rematch against BSU at 3:00 p.m. followed by a contest against tournament-host St. Cloud State at 5:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
As you could've guessed based on their record heading into the new weekend, it would've been hard for the Bulldogs to have started their season much better than the way they did.
UMD's journey through the Mankato Dome Invitational started with a run-in with fellow NSIC squad Concordia-St. Paul on Friday, Feb. 10. It was the Golden Bears that opened the scoring in the bottom of the second when Taylor Griffin reached base on an error that also sent Jacey Defries home to score. This remained the lone run of the entire contest until the bottom of the seventh, when the Bulldogs would need to change that to stay alive. Offense quickly started to mount- a Nicole Schmitt single here, a Kat Burkhardt single there, an Elle Potts sac fly to get runners in scoring position… It all set the scene for a two-out at-bat for Dea Deleon. With the game on the line, the junior outfielder pulled through, drilling out a massive single that sent both Schmitt and Burkhardt home. This sealed the deal on a 2-1 Bulldogs victory, one starting pitcher Lauren Dixon ultimately secured on a seven-inning outing that saw her give up just two hits and a single run.
Shortly thereafter on Friday, UMD got back to work against Northwest Missouri State. The Bulldogs would kick things off this time by way of a massive Burkhardt Homer in the bottom of the first to secure a 2-0 lead. Slowly but surely, though, NWMSU started to creep back. Runs in the top of the third and fourth inning ultimately left things knotted up at two heading into the final stretch.
But it wouldn't be long until the Bulldogs would respond- and they'd do so by blowing the doors all the way off of this one. In the bottom of the fourth, UMD found itself with Schmitt on third and Kendal Jenkins on second, fresh off of having stolen the base. Julia Gronholtz proceeded to cash in a single into two RBIs to allow the Bulldogs to retake the lead at 4-2. From there… watch out. A three-run moonshot from Kiana Bender later in the inning pushed UMD's lead all the way to five at 7-2. Two more runs in the bottom of the sixth by way of a Gronholz triple ultimately capped off a 9-2 Bulldog victory. Mady Stariha would be credited with the win on a four-inning, 1-run outing.
As was the case on Friday, Saturday started with a little bit of tension for UMD. The top of the first saw its opponent in Lewis rally off four runs, runs that stood as the only ones tallied by either team for several innings. Finally, the bottom of the fourth came around- that's when UMD really showed signs of life. A Corrie Weise homer brought herself and Schmitt home to cut the lead down to two. Morgan McMillan would score on a wild pitch later in the inning to bring the Bulldogs all the way to within a run at 4-3. In the following inning, Weise drew a walk with the bases loaded to bring Bender home, fully knitting up the score at 4. And in the seventh, it was time for UMD to finish the job- Sidney Zavoral secured an RBI off a fielder's choice that sent Ava Johnson home to give the Bulldogs a massive 5-4 comeback victory. Williams was the pitcher slated with the win, and rightfully so. The freshman didn't just allow only two hits through four innings- she didn't let up a single run.
UMD's final matchup in the tournament tour was against Missouri Western State. A Zavoral single right at the top of the first would score Bender to give the Bulldogs an early advantage, but MWSU would retaliate with two runs in the second to take a lead of its own. The fourth frame saw heavy offense, starting with three UMD runs (all scored off of different at-bats) and followed by two more Missouri Western scores. The score would actually sit at this 4-4 mark past the end of the seventh inning, leading us to extra time. When it seemed like a Burkhardt single that brought Johnson home might be enough to land UMD a victory, MWSU countered with another run of its own in the bottom of the ninth to extend this one even further. But when the Bulldogs notched three more runs in the top of the 11th (Kate Mohr by way of Bender and both Johnson and Bender through a Burkhardt triple), this ultimately proved too much to respond to. A 1-2-3 bottom of the 11th was enough for UMD to head out of Mankato perfect by adding an 8-5 win to its resume. Tally the win up to Williams, who allowed only three hits and a single run through six innings pitched.
STATS STATUS REPORT
Several Bulldogs had impressive overall showings at the plate through UMD's sweep of a weekend.
Burkhardt ended up leading the team in hits with six en route to another team-high of five RBIs. The junior outfielder also threw a home run into the mix. All-told, Burkhardt ended the weekend with a .400 on-base percentage (tied for tops on the team) and a .733 slugging percentage.
Gronholz was the other Bulldog to post an on-base clip of .400. The junior infielder paired this tally with a team-high .800 slugging percentage.
Bender also had herself a weekend. You'll notice a bit of a pattern here: the junior infielder posted five hits, drove in five runs and scored five times herself. The trend breaks at the total number of bases generated by Bender on the weekend, but that's a good thing- that number is 16.
And on the pitching front… you'll find impressive outings all the way down the score sheet. Williams ended up with the most wins (two) and an uber-impressive ERA of just 1.27 through 11 innings. The freshman held opposing hitting to just a .231 batting average. She allowed just nine total hits and two runs. Then there's Dixon and her 1.35 ERA through 10.1 innings to go with an opposing batting average of just .189. The junior only let up seven hits and three runs. Stariha wasn't far behind, holding a 2.17 ERA and keeping the opposition to a .256 batting average through 9.2 innings. Even transfer Allison Luoma got into the mix with a shutout inning in which she allowed just one hit.
FRESHMAN SENSATION
Williams had quite the collegiate debut this weekend- and it didn't go unnoticed. The freshman was awarded the first NSIC Pitcher of the Week honor of the season on Tuesday. This is (intuitively) Williams' first time earning the accolade- sure didn't take her all that long. That 1.27 ERA, by the way? Best in the NSIC over the weekend.
SCOUTING REPORT ON UMARY (LAST SEASON: 7-37 OVERALL, 5-19 NSIC)
Mary is the only squad UMD will face this weekend that has already started its season before making the trip to St. Cloud. The Marauders ultimately finished 1-2 through their slate of the Minot Dome Tournament, one of those losses being to tournament host and NSIC contemporary Minot State. Mary's win came in its last contest of the weekend, a 6-1 victory against Carroll College.
Leading the charge on the offensive end for the Marauders through a weekend of play has been a duo of impact returners in Devyn Ritz and Madison Wszolek. Ritz currently holds the team-high in hits with five, parlaying those into some pretty impressive stats. The senior infielder is operating on a batting average of .625, an OPS of 1.352 and an on-base percentage of .727. Wszolek leads the team in slugging percentage (at exactly 1.000), OPS (1.556) and RBIs (5).
On the mound, Nicole Eckhardt has been the main workhorse so far. The junior right-hander's operated 12 innings this year. Through them, Eckhardt's tallied an ERA of 6.42 while holding batters to a .321 average.
SCOUTING REPORT ON BEMIDJI STATE (LAST SEASON: 11-39 OVERALL, 8-22 NSIC)
Bemidji State will open its season in St. Cloud this weekend. As it does so, keep an extra eye out on Mariah Stevenson. As just a freshman last year, Stevenson led the Beavers in batting average (.322), on-base percentage (.385) and RBIs (22). The infielder also posted team-highs in OPS (.851) and slugging (.466). The sky would appear to be the limit for Stevenson in her sophomore campaign. Another name to watch for is Alexa Christenson, who led BSU with 48 hits as just a freshman herself. Also of note offensively are returners Elaina Christiansen and Emmarie Yeager, who tied for the team-lead in homers last year with four.
It's a new-look rotation on the mound for the Beavers this season, as they've lost their two primary pitchers from a season ago in Kaidron McClafferty and Stella Dolan. Between them goes 10 wins and 268 total innings pitched. The most seasoned pitcher that remains is Kyla Damerow, who threw 56 innings last season en route to an 8.13 ERA and a .404 opposing batting average. Two key pieces that will join Damerow are redshirt freshman Natalie Contrereas and junior Abby Kessel, the latter being a transfer out of NAIA program Mayville State.
SCOUTING REPORT ON ST. CLOUD STATE (LAST SEASON: 36-18 OVERALL, 23-7 NSIC)
The Huskies will begin their efforts at following up a successful 2022 campaign on home soil this weekend- and they'll do it with much of their firepower from a season before in-tow.
Take Raven Vanden Langenberg, for example. As a senior, the infielder registered a .361 batting average and 61 total hits that amounted to a team-high on-base percentage of .468. Then there's Sydney Trees. What a statistical season it was for the IF/C as a senior. She tied Vanden Langenberg's mark of 61 hits on the path to a whopping 54 RBIs and 123 total bases of offensive generation. All of this happened at a slugging percentage of .707. Trees sure is a fitting last name for someone that often rustled some leaves with homer upon homer- the infielder led the squad in that category last year with 17.
And the returning talent pool doesn't stop at the plate- check the mound. Trinity Bunker is back for another season after a stupendous senior effort that saw her register an ERA of just 1.63 while holding opposing hitters to a batting average of just .215 through 163.2 innings pitched. All of this was good for Bunker to close the season with a win-loss record of 19-6 on the year.
UP NEXT
The tournaments just keep on coming for UMD, as the squad will head out to Emporia, Kan. next weekend to be a part of the Emporia State Classic. Festivities start with a Friday, Feb. 17 slate of Oklahoma Baptist (2:30 p.m.) and Newman (4:45 p.m.). Saturday, Feb. 18 sees the Bulldogs take on Northwest Missouri State at 10:00 a.m. before playing Missouri-St. Louis at 2:30 p.m. The weekend closes on Sunday, Feb. 19 with Washburn at 9:30 a.m. and tournament-host Emporia State at 11:45 a.m.
