The Peacock softball team was involved in a pair of shutouts on Saturday in their Northern Sun Conference doubleheader with the MSU Moorhead Dragons. Upper Iowa earned a hard-fought, extra-inning win in game one behind a complete-game shutout from
Emily Kisch. In game two, the Dragons responded with an 8-0 shutout of their own to earn the split. With two games remaining in the season, UIU is now 18-32 overall and 10-18 in NSIC action, while MSU Moorhead is now 12-35 overall and 7-23 in league play.
Upper Iowa will wrap up the year at Northern State University on Sunday afternoon. The doubleheader with the Wolves in Aberdeen, S.D. is scheduled to get underway at 12 p.m.
GAME ONE: UIU 2 - MSUM 0 (8)
Kisch was dominant for the visitors in the opener, allowing a total of five hits for the game, including just one through the first four innings. The freshman from Elgin, Ill. faced the minimum through four innings, with the lone hit being erased on a double play in the second inning. Kisch was in a duel with Dragon starter Tori White, who was matching zeros on the scoreboard, just in a different way.
Upper Iowa put together hits against White, but could not drive the runs in. Through the first seven innings, UIU tallied nine hits, but nine runners left on base kept this game scoreless after seven frames. The Peacocks left two on in the first inning, stranding hits from
Riley Kruel and
Sammy Garrett, and two in the fifth, with
Sami Kay Shafranski and Garrett left on the bags.
In the eighth inning, the Peacocks finally capitalized. Shafranski doubled to left field to get things started, and Garrett followed it up with a run-scoring single to get the visitors on the board. Upper Iowa added on with runners on the corners and one out. Freshman
Jordyn Brennan came through with a single up the middle to give UIU a 2-0 lead. The visitors tallied four hits in the extra inning to take a two-run lead and put pressure on MSU Moorhead to answer.
Kisch worked around an error in the eighth, but had no trouble closing out the game, to improve to 8-14 on the season. The freshman struck out six and walked just one en route to the victory. UIU is now 3-1 on the season in extra-inning games in 2017.
Brennan and Garrett led the offense in the opening game with a pair of 3-4 effort, while Kruel, Shafranski, and
Ali Green each totaled two hits as well.
GAME TWO: MSUM 8 - UIU 0
The Dragons found their offense in game two against starter
Courtney Clayberg, taking a big lead early on. Three run-scoring doubles and two rbi-singles opened a 7-0 advantage for the home team, scoring three in the second inning and four in the third, all on a total of nine hits in the two frames.
Upper Iowa continued to struggle to score in game two, totaling just six hits against MSU Moorhead starter Jordan Hall. Four of the six hits came from the top of the order between Kruel and Shafranski, each totaling two apiece. Clayberg took the loss after 2.1 innings, and was replaced in the circle by
Erin Drahozal who finished the game, allowing two runs on five hits. MSU Moorhead scored one more in the sixth to push the game to the eventual final score, 8-0.
The home team tallied 13 hits, and was efficient at the plate to score the eight runs in the game, and sent 35 batters to the plate in the process as well.
