St. Cloud, Minn.- UMD softball secured a sweep of its slate of the Kelly Laas Invitational on Sunday, defeating Bemidji State 13-2 before taking care of tournament-host St. Cloud State 11-1. Two domes, no problems- the Bulldogs are currently 8-0 on the season through two weekends of play. And though they don't count as conference games just yet, for what it's worth, UMD has already knocked off four NSIC squads for a combined five victories.
All the same, it was the Beavers that struck first in their rematch with the Bulldogs to kick off the day. Elaina Christiansen rattled off a single to score Kora Martin and put BSU up 1-0. But UMD would quickly counter in the bottom of the frame, Kiana Bender scoring off of a wild pitch to knot up the score at 1-1. It was The Beavers' turn to respond, and they did so with an Emmarie Yeager double to bring Ashley Herold home and re-establish a BSU lead at 2-0.
Then came the bottom of the second.
It should have been obvious from the moment Sydney Zavoral blasted her second home run of the season to tie things up at 2s where this inning was headed. Spoilers: this wouldn't be the last run scored in this frame. Just ask Elle Potts, who crossed home plate by way of a Bender single to give UMD its first lead of the game at 3-2. Need a second opinion? Could've asked Bender on her way in to score, too as Ava Johnson would bring her home by way of a double to make it 4-2. The hits just kept on coming. The Bulldogs even found some fortune when Katie Burkhardt reached first on an error that would also send Johnson in to score to make it 5-2. Deep breath- this next one is the last tally of the inning. Weise singled to complete Burkhardt's trip around the bases and make it 6-2 UMD.
A five-run bottom of the second for the Bulldogs… it sure could have gone worse.
But UMD's dominance wouldn't be contained to just a single frame. Things picked right back up again when Potts singled to drive in Zavoral and make it 7-2 in the bottom of the third. And in the fourth frame came two more runs, these courtesy of Burkardt and Johnson, when Nicole Schmitt registered a single. With the score already at 9-2, Julia Gronholz stepped up to the plate. The junior infielder ultimately headed towards first in pretty good spirits- she cranked a triple to left center that ultimately produced three RBIs (Potts, Zavoral and Schmitt) to balloon UMD's lead all the way to 10 at 12-2. Kate Mohr reaching on an error eventually allowed Gronholz to head to home plate herself, pushing the score to 13-2.
Allyssa Williams had done good work at the mound for the Bulldogs throughout the entirety of this contest to this point, and when she was called upon to really close things out in the bottom of the fifth, she was arguably at her best. The freshman's first one-two-three inning of the contest shut down BSU for good and handed UMD a huge 13-2 win.
Gronolz's nail-in-the-coffin triple in the fourth was enough to leave her as the Bulldogs' leader in RBIs on the game with three. Potts led the way in hits with three to go along with two runs and an RBI. Zavoral went a perfect 2-2 from the plate against the Beavers and found home herself three different times. On the mound, Williams was brilliant once again. The freshman went the full five innings, allowing just four total hits and two runs in the process.
If you can believe it, UMD's ensuing contest against St. Cloud State would see even less tension. It helps that the Bulldogs took the lead first in this one, that initial tally coming when Corrie Weise singled (and eventually made it to second) to bring home Johnson. Leads of all kinds are nice- but how about a little bit of a cushion? That's what Zavoral was able to provide with her second homer of the day, one that ultimately saw her follow Schmitt and Weise to home plate to make the score 4-0.
SCSU would get one back in the bottom of the first, a Sydney Trees single bringing home Raven Vanden Langenberg to cut the deficit to three at 4-1. Ultimately, though… this would be the only run the Huskies would register in the game.
The same could not be said for the Bulldogs, who ushered in the third inning with style. Potts chose a great time to blast away her first homer of the season, a deepshot from the junior infielder also scoring Weise and Schmitt to suddenly make it 7-1 UMD. Bender would later provide even more insurance in the same inning with a double to bring home Dea Deleon to leave the score at 8-1.
And if that wasn't enough, Potts wasn't quite done yet. In the top of the fourth, the junior recorded yet another three-RBI homer, this one seeing Tori Wietgrefe and Schmitt join her at home, to leave the Bulldogs with a commanding 11-1 lead. It's a score that would prove to stick until the bottom of the fifth, thus leaving UMD with a mercy rule victory.
It's no surprise that Potts finished this contest with the team lead in RBIs, her final tally in that arena being six. Zavoral was 2-3 from the plate in this one and had three RBIs of her own.
Unlike the day's previous matchup, pitching was produced by-committee against the Huskies. Mady Stariha started the festivities with two innings, allowing three hits and a single run through 35 pitches. Stariha was eventually awarded the win in this one. Allison Luoma tagged in for two innings of her own, ending with a shutout of an outing in which she allowed only one hit through 27 pitches. Finally, Lauren Dixon came in to close things out. The junior was able to maneuver out of a situation that saw runners on second and third with no further runs added for the Huskies, thus cementing the 11-1 victory in stone.
ANSWERS FROM ANDERSON
One word that might come to mind when you see UMD's resounding 8-0 record to start the season is "consistency." After all, it's pretty hard to win that many games in a row if you aren't doing some of the same things right pretty often along the way.
One of those reliables for the Bulldogs right now? Hitting.
It's not just the home runs, either, though those definitely pop off of the page- especially in a game like the one against SCSU where homers accounted for six of UMD's 11 runs. That kind of power hitting is nice to have, but it's not all the Bulldogs have got. Look back at that second inning against Bemidji State as an example of this- this team is just flat-out good at hitting the ball and moving base runners.
It's been like that all season thus far. Just ask UMD head coach Lynn Anderson.
"Last weekend we showed the same thing: we can win different ways," Anderson said. "And a team that can do that is always dangerous."
It's a level of danger that's been able to stack up well against some pretty tough competition, too, something that Anderson saw on full display on Sunday.
"That's a good team there -St Cloud- so for us to hit like we did against them, it speaks volumes to how well our team is preparing, keying in on solid approaches and trusting the process," Anderson said.
Leading the pack for the Bulldogs in those offensive efforts in day two in St. Cloud? Potts and Zavoral. The duo combined for a whopping nine hits, eight runs and 11 RBIs. But according to Anderson, all that work also did something that doesn't reflect on the stat sheet- it served as a spark.
"Huge momentum homeruns," Anderson said. "Those fired up our team. (Potts and Zavoral) saw the ball well this weekend as did a lot of our players."
Still, offense is just one aspect of the game, and even the greatest of powerhouse hitters can't go without some stout defensive work to back them up. Luckily for the Bulldogs, that's exactly what they had on Sunday.
To Anderson, this wasn't a shock. As they say, practice makes perfect.
"I know we have a great skilled defense behind an incredible pitching staff- we make big plays in practice all the time, so to see our defense step up and make big plays was no surprise," Anderson said. "Taking care of the ball is credit to our team's dedication to precision in practice."
And speaking of taking care of business, look at the number of runners stranded by the Bulldog defense against St. Cloud State: six. It becomes pretty easy to forget letting up a hit if the hitter never ends up seeing home plate. That's exactly the kind of performance UMD was able to pull off against the Huskies- particularly in the fifth, right when it mattered most. Dixon and company's ability to work through a mini-jam was a huge part of the team's ability to get out of St. Cloud on Sunday in 10 innings and nothing more. This wasn't lost on Anderson.
"The composure aspect is key," Anderson said. "We train for that. To have St Cloud with runners in scoring position in the last inning and our team lock in, that moment in and of itself was a win. And now we have that in our memory bank in the future and we keep building off those successes."
