MANKATO, Minn. – Lewis University's softball team dropped a pair of games in its season opening day on Saturday. The Flyers (0-2) fell to Minnesota Duluth 5-1 in their season opener and then dropped a 9-7 contest to Concordia-St. Paul in their second game of the day.
Minnesota Duluth 5 Lewis 1
The Bulldogs (3-0) sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning scoring four runs on two hits and took advantage of four walks. Jordyn Thomas drove in the first run of the game with a single to right and then Sidney Zavoral hit a three-run homer to left-center. UMD added two more runners with walks but would be left stranded.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 5-0 with a bases loaded single with two outs in the second off the bat of Elle Potts.
The Flyers (0-1) scored its run in the home half of the third.
Maggie Joutras (Shorewood, Ill./Providence Catholic High School) led off the inning with a single to second, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from
Delaney Garden (Carpentersville, Ill./H.D. Jacobs) and scored on
Ella Jacobson's (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) single to right center.
Lewis had a chance to get closer in the fifth putting runners on first and second with two out but Jacobson struck out swinging to end the inning.
The Flyers were outhit in the contest 7-4 with Jacobson, Joutras, Garden and
Evie Calderon (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) recording a hit apiece.
Sara Serena (Kankakee, Ill./Kankakee) got the start in the circle allowing five runs on two hits while walking seven in 1.1 innings of work to take the loss. Garden pitched the final 5.2 innings allowing no runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.
Concordia-St. Paul 9 Lewis 7
Lewis jumped out to an early lead scoring two runs in the top of the first on an RBI groundout to first off the bat of
Kristin Kavalauskas (Oak Forest, Ill./Tinley Park) and a RBI single to center from Serena.
The Golden Bears (3-1) tied the score in its half of the first scoring two runs on four hits. Amanda Parsons drove in the first run with a single to right and Jacey Defries tied the game with a bunt single.
The Flyers regained the lead in the top of the second.
Payton Wuske (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) led off the inning with a double to left center and moved to third on Joutras' single to right center.
Gabi Nilles (North Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) brought in Wuske with the go-ahead run with a single and then later in the inning Joutras scored on an error by the second baseman.
CSP scored four times on three hits in the bottom of the third to take a 6-4 lead. Defries had the big hit in the inning driving in two with a double to left center. Annalise Scamehorn and Taylor Griffin also drove in runs in the inning.
Lewis got a run back in the fourth as Nilles scored on a fielder's choice to short off the bat of
Jalyn Powell (Tolono, Ill./Unity). The Flyers then retook the lead in the fifth with two runs on four hits. Serena started the inning with a single to center and Calderon followed with a double to right center. Serena scored on a wild pitch to tie the game and Calderon scored on Joutras' single to left to make it 7-6.
The Golden Bears retook the lead scoring three runs on two hits and an error in its half of the sixth. Parsons drove in the tying run with a double to right and later in the inning Avery Johnson doubled down the left field line to score Parsons with the go-ahead run. Johnson came around to score an insurance run on an error by
Carrie Anderson (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) to make it 9-7.
Lewis got its leadoff hitter on the seventh as Nilles walked but back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to third ended the contest.
The Flyers had 15 hits in the contest led by Garden and Serena with three apiece. Wuske got the start in the circle giving up nine runs, seven earned, on 10 hits with four walks and a pair of strikeouts to fall to 0-1 on the season.
Lewis is back in action on Sunday taking on Missouri Western at 11:30 a.m. and Minnesota State at 2 p.m.
