The Wayne State College softball team closed the 2023 season Sunday in chilly, windy St. Cloud, Minnesota splitting a doubleheader at St. Cloud State as the Wildcats won 5-4 in eight innings in the opener followed by a
7-1 Husky win in the second game. WSC ends the year at 13-39 and 8-21 in the league while SCSU is 31-18 and 16-8 in conference games.
The opener saw the Wildcats rally in the final two innings and then send the game into extra innings to score a 5-4 win.
The game was scoreless until the fourth when the host Huskies scored for a 1-0 lead.
WSC tied the score at 1-1 in the top of the fifth when
Dylan Sweeney singled and later scored on a
Riley Holmberg RBI single.
SCSU came up with two runs in the fifth for a 3-1 lead, but WSC countered in the top of the sixth with two runs to tie the game at 3-3.
Louisa Stowman's two-run double to left field brought home pinch runner
Abby Husing and Sweeney (singled).
WSC took a short-lived 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh as
Madison Gomez had an RBI single to drive home
Paiton Tornberg, but the Huskies tied the game with one run in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.
In the eighth, Holmberg singled with two outs and scored on a
Kim Vidlak single for a 5-4 lead. Starting pitcher Sami Felt then retired SCSU in order in the bottom of the eighth to preserve the 5-4 extra inning win.
WSC held a 14-6 advantage in hits over the Huskies, led by Sweeney who was 3 for 4 with two runs scored. Holmberg,
Lauren Laudick, Vidlak and Tornberg each had two hits.
Felt (5-17) earned the complete game win in the circle allowing just six hits and four runs with two strikeouts and three walks.
The second game saw the host Huskies break open a close game scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to top the Wildcats 7-1.
Trailing 1-0 after three innings, WSC scored a run in the top of the fourth to knot the score at 1-1 as Vidlak singled and scored on a Gomez RBI single.
The Huskies scored one run in the fifth and added five insurance runs in the sixth for the 7-1 win.
WSC had six hits in the second game. Vidlak was 2 for 3 with a run scored while Sweeney added two hits. Tornberg and Gomez also had hits for the 'Cats.
Junior
Callie Carraher suffered the loss in the circle working 5 1/3 innings while senior
Hadley Chvatal came on to close the contest.