MSU softball’s win streak comes to a halt

The Minnesota State Maverick softball team had a nine-game win streak snapped this weekend in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

MSU has been playing extremely well, but they were not able to get past the Northern State University Wolves. The Mavericks played NSU twice Sunday and lost both games, the first one 3-2 and the second 9-1 in just five innings.

Before the two Sunday afternoon losses, the Purple and Gold had been on fire. The Mavericks dominated Bemidji State, Minnesota Crookston, Upper Iowa and Minnesota State University, Moorhead for two weeks leading up to Sunday’s defeat.

Last Wednesday MSU played the Upper Iowa Peacocks in some tough weather. In game one the Peacocks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before being tied by junior Samantha Buhmann with a two-run RBI single. UIU added another two runs in the fifth inning, and the Mavericks tied everything up 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh.

In the extra eighth inning junior Dana Mogren hit a fly single to center field to get senior Emily Bransky home for the winning run, 5-4. Game two of he MSU-UIU home series was canceled due to poor weather conditions.

Saturday the Mavericks went face to face with the MSUM Dragons. MSU sophomore pitcher Libby Bemis and senior pitcher Katie Koponen pitched extremely well during game one, allowing only one hit and no runs for a 6-0 final score. Bemis started the game for the Mavs and earned win number 11 on the season. Offensively, Buhmann stood out again for the Mavericks, earning three hits, two runs and one RBI in the game one.

Game two against Moorhead was also a great win for the Purple and Gold. Junior Coley Ries struck out 11 Dragon batters, allowing on five hits and three runs and earned her 17th win of the season in a 7-3 win.

Sunday was a turning point in the Mavericks NSIC play. It was the first time all season that MSU was swept by another NSIC conference team. Previous conference loses are one game to St. Cloud State and one game to the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Ries pitched the first game for the Mavericks and allowed one run and seven hits in 6.2 innings pitched. Ries did strike 13 batters out in the process. MSU jumped ahead early with a 2-0 lead in the top of the third.

Buhmann drove one run in and sophomore Kara Lattery singled to the left side to get Buhmann home for the second. In the bottom of the fifth NSU scored one run. In the seventh the Mavericks left runners on base, which led the Wolves to score two in the bottom of the seventh for the 3-2 victory.

In the second game of the day Bemis took the loss. The game only went five innings as the Wolves went up 9-1 on the Mavericks. Sophomore Alyssa Rickels hit a single to score freshman Cori Kennedy, the lone Mav run of the game.

After Sunday the Mavericks have an overall record of 30-10 and 13-4 in NSIC play.
This week the Mavericks will take on the Winona State University Warriors in a doubleheader Tuesday, starting at 2:00 p.m.

Photo: Samantha Buhmann slides in safe during a game against Sioux Falls on March 29. (Yohanes Ashenafi/The Reporter)