MANKATO, Minn. – The clock was nearing midnight on Friday as the Bethany Lutheran softball team used a 9-run 10th inning to come out with an extra innings win and split a pair of contests with Gustavus Adolphus. The Gusties would take game one 11-1 before the Vikings would scratch out a 13-4 victory in 10 innings.
Game One – Gustavus Adolphus 11 – 1 Bethany Lutheran
In Bethany's first contest of the night, their bats were stymied and defensive woes cost them as the Gusties slowly pulled away throughout the game. Gustavus put up two runs in the first inning and one in the second to hold a 3-0 lead after three innings. In the fourth the Gusties would plate two more unearned runs due to a Bethany error, before another error in the fifth would give Gustavus another run and a 6-0 lead.
Katelyn Halbach would walk in the bottom of the fifth, steal second, and score on a base hit up the middle from Jade Krenik to put Bethany on the board. In the sixth though the game would get away from the Vikings, as they committed three errors that allowed five runs to score and put them behind 11-1. Bethany had just one hit heading into the bottom of the sixth before Emily Doyle ripped a double to the gap to put runners in scoring position but Gustvus pitcher Maizie Anderson would get out of the jam for the win.
Game Two – Bethany Lutheran 13 – 4 Gustavus Adolphus (10 innings)
After being outhit 11-2 in game one, the Vikings flipped the script in the second contest as they outhit the Gusties 17-3 in the extra innings win.
Gustavus would once again get the scoring started in this one, as they scratched a run across in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. The Vikings would threaten in the top of the second with a few baserunners but some close calls on the bases would end the threat and keep Bethany scoreless.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of second and third from Kayla Senne, the Vikings would finally break the ice in the fourth as Doyle and Ana Christofferson would get on base with one out. After Elizabeth Cizek sac bunted them both into scoring position Aliya Kehler would knock a base hit up the middle that scored both to give Bethany a 2-1 lead.
The Vikings held onto that 2-1 lead all the way until the bottom of the seventh inning, but a pair of errors would help Gustavus plate a run to even things at two and send the game to extra innings.
In extra innings a runner starts on second base, and both teams successfully plated just one run in both the eighth and ninth innings to send the game to the 10th.
Kaija Mork led off the 10th inning with a triple that really broke the ice for the Vikings and helped them start a massive inning. The Gustavus defense also started to fall apart, as they had four errors which allowed the Vikings to plate four runs and brought Mork back to the plate with the bases once again loaded. Mork, for the second time in the innings, ripped another line drive off the right field wall for her second triple of the inning and to clear the bases and really break the game open. Doyle would then single to bring in Mork and give Bethany their ninth run of the inning.
Kayla Senne would then go out in the bottom of the 10th and put Gustavus down in order to secure the win.
Doyle led the Vikings in the hitting column in the contest as she posted four hits, while Mork and Christofferson had three hits apiece.
Senne went all 10 innings on the mound, allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out nine.
