The Peacock softball team broke its 10-game win streak, but rebounded for with a walk-off win to finish the spring break trip to the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla. at 9-1.
UIU fell to Nova Southeastern 7-2 in game on to break their streak, but came back with a 7-6, nine inning, win over Ashland in game two.
Brooke Redmond (8-3) took the loss in game one, but threw all nine innings in game two to earn a split on the day.
Jacqueline Flood had four hits in eight at-bats to lead UIU and added two runs scored and two RBI.
Katie Sammons hit the lone long ball on the day for Upper Iowa.
The Peacocks will take a little over a week off as they prepare for the conference season to begin when UIU will host Winona State on Wednesday, Mar. 23. The doubleheader against the Warriors will start at 2 p.m.
Nova Southeastern 7, Upper Iowa 2 The Peacocks snapped their 10-game win streak with a loss to the Nova Southeastern Sharks in game one on the final day in Florida. The Sharks broke the game open with six runs in the fourth inning on their way to the win.
After Nova Southeastern scored in the bottom of the first, UIU tied the game in the top of the third with a Flood single that scored
Sami Kay Shafranski.
Nova came back in a big way in the fourth with six runs on five hits, but were aided by four Peacock errors.
Upper Iowa had a base runner in the fifth and sixth, but finally scored with two outs in the bottom of the seventh as Sammons hit her second home run of the week.
Upper Iowa 7, Ashland 6 The Peacocks bounced back with an extra-inning, walk-off win over the Ashland Eagles in which both teams scored in each of the additional innings. UIU had to battle back and tie the game in the bottom of the seventh to force extras, then had to score in the eighth to force the ninth inning, and then had to overcome a one-run deficit in the ninth to earn the win.
After three scoreless innings to start the game, Upper Iowa got on the both in the bottom of the fourth with a two-RBI single by
Lauren Marlinghaus.
Ashland responded with two runs in the next half inning to tie the game at 2-2 after the fifth.
Upper Iowa scored what could have been the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth when
Tara Duran singled home
Tara Walls to make it 3-2, Peacocks.
The Eagles, however, had other plans as they rallied for a pair of runs in the top of the seventh and took a 4-3 lead. UIU quickly tied things up in the bottom half of the inning and forced extras as
Sammy Garrett singled to center, moved to second on a
Riley Kruel sacrifice bunt, then scored on a Shafranski infield single.
With runners placed on second starting in the eighth, Ashland scored by moving the runner to third on a sac bunt, then brought them home with a sac fly. The Peacocks utilized the sac bunt in the bottom of the eighth to move
Julia Buffington from second to third, but needed a two-out Duran double to score the tying run in the eighth.
The Eagles had their own two-out double to score in the top of the ninth, but left the bases loaded. UIU repeated their success from the bottom of the seventh as Garrett was placed on second and moved to third on a Kruel sac bunt. With two outs and the tying run on third, Flood tripled to right to tie the game. Kirgan came up as the next hitter and singled home Flood for the walk-off win.
Redmond threw all nine innings for Upper Iowa, her longest outing of the year. The Bashehor, Kansas native earned her eighth win of the year and allowed six runs, four earned, on 12 hits with five strike outs and four walks.
