Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box
ABERDEEN, S.D. – The fourteenth-ranked Augustana College Vikings put a damper on Northern State's Parents Day festivities on Saturday, blanking the host Wolves by final scores of 3-0 and 8-0 in a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference contests.
The losses dropped NSU to 6-24 overall and 2-12 in league play, while the Vikings have won seven of their last eight games and moved to 29-8 overall and 11-1 in NSIC games.
As a team, the Wolves scattered eight hits through the course of the two games. Those eight hits came off the bats of eight different players and five came in Game 1. The Wolves, however, stranded 15 runners on the bases on the day, including ten in the opener.
Northern State sophomore Kelli Bornander took the mound for the Wolves to start Saturday's action and worked her way in and out of jams while allowing just three runs on ten hits and striking out four. Bornander worked all seven innings without surrendering a walk.
The Vikings put one run on the board in the first inning and added two more in the fifth. NSU threatened to strike back in the bottom of the sixth after loading the bases with two outs. Viking hurler Mikey Anderson, however, weaseled her way out of that jam with her ninth strikeout of the day.
Anderson, who came on in relief of starter Chelsea Durland in the third inning, picked up her second win of the season after finishing out the final five innings of the game. Durland left the mound after two innings with tightness in her back, but remained in the game at first base.
The sophomore still managed to put a dent in the Wolves' hopes for Game 2, belting her fifth home run of the season in the seventh inning. That solo shot capped an 8-0 victory for the Vikings, who used a five-run fourth to outdistance the Wolves.
Sophomore Ashley Meyer tossed the complete-game shutout for the Vikings, holding the Wolves to just three hits in the game. NSU sophomore Rachel South absorbed the loss for the Wolves, lasting two and a third innings, giving up two runs on five hits.
The Wolves return to the field on Sunday for another tough NSIC doubleheader against Wayne State College. The Wildcats were receiving votes in the latest NFCA Top 25 poll. Game time is set for noon at the Moccasin Creek fields.
