The Upper Iowa softball team had a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning against the Minnesota State Mavericks on Wednesday afternoon in Mankato, Minn., but MSU rallied for two runs in the inning and scored in the bottom of the eighth for a 5-4 win. Game two was canceled due to weather conditions. With the loss, UIU fell to 23-12 and 9-4 in conference play. Minnesota State improved to 28-9 overall and 11-2 in the NSIC.
The top of the Peacock lineup supplied all of the offense for UIU as leadoff hitter junior
Riley Kruel had two hits and No. 2 hitter freshman
Sami Kay Shafranski had three hits. Senior
Jacqueline Flood (11-7) took the loss as she threw 7.2 innings and gave up five runs, four earned, on 13 hits.
The Peacocks scored the first runs of the game in the top of the third. With two outs, UIU started their two run rally with a walk by sophomore
Sammy Garrett. Kruel followed that with an infield single and set up Shafranski for an RBI double down the right field line to score Garrett. Kruel put Upper Iowa up 2-0 when she scored on a wild pitch a few pitches later.
Minnesota State responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the third. MSU had its first two hitters single, followed by a Peacock error to load the bases. After UIU got the next hitter to ground into a fielder's choice, a single up the middle scored two runs and tied the game at 2-2.
In the top of the fifth, Upper Iowa took the lead back, 4-2, on two hits. Again Garrett got things going with a walk and scored on a Kruel single. Shafranski kept the inning going with a single to center, which allowed Flood to bring Kruel home on an RBI ground out.
Flood had to work out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth as the Mavericks started the inning with three straight singles. But an infield fly and a couple of ground outs ended the threat and kept the Peacocks in front 4-2.
MSU rallied in the bottom half of the seventh to tie the game and force extras. Minnesota State started the inning with a triple and scored on the next at-bat when a single up the middle made it 4-3. The Mavericks went on to load the bases with just one out and used a sacrifice fly to center to score the game-tying run.
The Peacocks went down in order in the top half of the eighth. Minnesota State had their first hitter in the eighth reach on a single and moved up to second on an error. After a sacrifice bunt moved to the runner to third, MSU loaded the bases on a hit by pitch and a walk before hitting a fly ball to center that was deep enough to allow the runner from third to score the game winning run.
Upper Iowa heads to U-Mary on Saturday and Minot State on Sunday for a pair of NSIC doubleheaders. The games against the Marauders will start at 1 p.m., while the meeting with the Beavers starts at noon.
