Wayne State 4 Mary 1
The Wayne State softball team opened the Northern Sun Conference Tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Friday morning with a 4-1 win over the University of Mary. With the win WSC has won 10 straight games, its longest win streak of the season, and is now 37-12 overall while Mary falls into the elimination bracket and is now 31-22.
WSC opened the scoring in the third inning with a pair of runs. Aeriell Earleywine led off the inning with a single to right field and scored on Kassie Nurton's triple to right center field. Nurton then scored on Blaire Kuhl's infield single to shortstop to give the Wildcats a 2-0 advantage.
The 'Cats added two more runs in the fourth when Jennifer Radley singled to left field followed by Hannah Engelkamp's two run homer to put WSC up 4-0.
Mary made things interesting for the Wildcats in the sixth inning as the Marauders used a walk and three singles off WSC reliever Amber Baird to score one run and put runners at second and third with just one out. But Wildcat starter Katie Goetzinger came back into the game and got back-to-back outs on a foul out and strike out to get out of the jam.
Wayne State outhit Mary in the contest 7-5 as seven different Wildcats recorded hits. Engelkamp homered to extend her season-high hitting streak to 11 games, finishing 1 for 3 with two RBI's. Nurton's triple was the only other extra base hit for WSC. Kuhl, Sam Earleywine, Radley, Aeriell Earleywine and Brittany Greenwood each added singles in the win.
On the mound, Katie Goetzinger (26-8) earned the win, working 6 2/3 innings. She allowed just two hits and struck out 12 while walking just two batters. Amber Baird worked part of the sixth inning, recording one out while allowing three hits and one run with one walk and one strikeout.
The Wildcats were scheduled to face Winona State at 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon in the winner's bracket semi-final of the NSIC Softball Tournament in Sioux Falls.
