Game 1 Box

Game 2 Box

MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Northern State University Wolves ended their 2010 campaign on a high note on Sunday, using an offensive explosion to power their way past Minnesota State University, Moorhead for a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victories.  The Wolves claimed a 10-7 win in the opener and bounced back for a 6-4 victory in the nightcap, marking their third win in the final four games of the season.

 

NSU ends the year with a 10-32 record and a 6-20 mark in conference play.  MSU Moorhead also concluded its 2010 season with 7-39 (overall) and 5-23 (NSIC) marks.

 

Using a juggled line-up in both games, the Wolves saw the offensive production they had been looking for all season as four of their eight hits in the opening tilt went for extra bases.  Sophomores Ashley Gabler and Whitney Luhring, along with freshman Kelsey Robling all knocked out doubles, while sophomore Brooke Norris – who started both games in center field to allow senior Sam Francis to start her final career games at her natural shortstop position – picked up a 2-RBI triple in the top of the seventh that helped scored the go-ahead runs for the Wolves.

 

NSU entered the seventh and final inning locked in a 7-7 tie.  Sophomore Brittany Huback led off the inning with a comeback single up the middle, then moved to second when Robling was hit by a pitch.  Both players came around to score on Norris' three-bagger that forced the Dragons into their second pitching change of the day.

 

Junior Mara Litzer took the mound and retired all three batters she faced, but not before Norris slipped home for an unearned run on an error by the Dragons' third baseman that made it a 10-7 affair.

 

NSU lefty Kelley Suggs then shut down the Dragons in the bottom of the seventh to preserve her complete-game victory.  Suggs pitched all seven innings of the game, allowing seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits while striking out four.

 

The Wolves got their eight hits from eight different players in that game.  Norris also had two of the team's four walks.

 

NSU needed a late rally in the top of the seventh to take Game 2 of Sunday's season finale.  Down 4-2 heading into their final at bat, the Wolves again used the three-base hit, this time off the bat of Huback, to rally into the lead.

 

With one out in the books and just two outs away from game-over, the Wolves used two Dragon errors sandwiched around a walk to Norris to score one run and put runners at first and second with Huback at the plate.  Facing a 1-2 count, Huback delivered with a bases-clearing triple that put the Wolves up 5-4.  Huback then came home on Suggs' 0-2 single, giving the Wolves an insurance run they didn't need.

 

MSUM's Alexa D'Onofrio recorded the final two outs of the inning to keep it a 6-4 game, but NSU freshman Stephanie Horkey got three straight pop-up outs in the bottom of the seventh to earn her first career victory. 

 

Horkey went the distance on the mound for the Wolves in her first start of the season, allowing four runs on eight hits and striking out five in a complete-game performance.

Sunday's games also marked the final career games for Francis and fellow senior Tara Bruns, both of whom started the second game of the doubleheader.  Francis and Bruns are four-year members of the Wolves' squad.