SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Peacock softball team dropped a pair of close, one-run affairs on Friday to round out their busy opening week of the Northern Sun Conference season. The Cougars of the University of Sioux Falls came all the way back to earn a walk-off, 8-7 win over Upper Iowa in the opening game, and scored a run in the bottom of the sixth inning in game two to sweep the Peacocks, 4-3. With the losses, UIU drops to 14-12 overall and 1-5 in the NSIC.
 
Upper Iowa will take the holiday weekend off, and get back to action on Tuesday, April 3 against the Vikings of Augustana University for their home opener. The doubleheader begins at 2 p.m., and will be aired in eastern Iowa on KCRG TV 9.3.
 
Game 1: USF 8 – UIU 7
It was the Peacocks who stormed out of the gates on Friday afternoon in the opening game, taking a commanding 7-0 lead in the first inning. Katie Crogan got the scoring started with an rbi-single to score Jenny Budds, and the offense started rolling from there. Jordyn Brennan followed with a two-run double to plate Julia Buffington and Sami Kay Shafranski, and the lead was 3-0.
 
A fielder's choice RBI for Payton Kastenschmidt scored another run, and Erin Drahozal followed it up with a double with the bases loaded, a throwing error allowed another two runs to score, and the lead was up to 6-0 UIU. The visitors added one more with a Jenny Budds single, and all together the Peacocks sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning and held an incredible 7-0.
 
However, the hometown Cougars were not flustered and did not give in. USF scored one in the bottom of the first inning, but still needed a major rally to have a chance against Peacock starter Emily Kisch. Kisch lasted 3.1 innings, allowing six earned runs on eight hits with a strikeout and four walks. Sioux Falls added a run in the third inning to get within 7-2, but the big frame came in the fourth. The home team scored four times on rbi-singles and a fielder's choice to pull within one, 7-6.
 
Drahozal took over in the fourth inning, and finished the game in the circle for the Peacocks in relief. In the fifth frame, the Cougars tied it on an rbi-single, and what was a 7-0 lead all of a sudden disappeared. UIU went scoreless in the final six innings on offense, and the game moved to the bottom of the seventh tied. USF would walk-off in the inning to complete the comeback and earn the 8-7 win.
 
Budds and Shafranski tallied two hits apiece in the loss.
 
Game 2: USF 4 – UIU 3
The theme of the afternoon for the Cougars was the comeback. Upper Iowa again took the early lead, scoring twice in the first inning. Crogan launched her team-best fifth home run of the season to give UIU the 2-0 advantage.
 
In the third frame, Drahozal came to the plate with the bases loaded, and converted with a run-scoring single right back to the pitcher. Upper Iowa led 3-0 after two and a half innings, but USF proved it is never over until the very end.
 
Sioux Falls scored two runs in the bottom of the third against Upper Iowa starter Sydney Wilcox, who went all 6.0 innings of work Friday. The freshman would go on to surrender four earned runs on eight hits while striking out a pair of Cougars. With the Peacocks leading 3-2 in the fifth, the Cougars stepped up and tied it with an rbi-double to center field. The game was tied at 3-3 in the later innings, and the home team again had a chance to win late.
 
In the home half of the sixth, USF tripled to right center field to score a run, taking a 4-3 lead in the process. Upper Iowa, who scored 10 runs in just three different innings Friday, failed to score in the late frames in the loss, dropping a hard-fought, 4-3 decision.
 
Shafranski was the lone Peacock with two hits in the final game of the day.