Lady Dogs Close out Regular Season

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth punched its ticket to next weekend’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament by sweeping Minot State University Sunday afternoon at James S. Malosky Stadium in its 2015 regular season finales. The Bulldogs will enter the conference’s post-season event riding a six-game winning streak after upending the Beavers 3-0 and 9-8.

UMD, which is 33-20 overall and placed seventh in the 16-team NSIC standings with a 17-13 mark, rode the right arm of junior pitcher Cayli Sadler in the opener and got all the scoring it would need with a two-run fifth. Sadler tossed a two-hitter and struck out nine while winning for the eighth time in her last nine decisions. She improved to 18-10 on the year with the shutout — her second of 2015. Second baseman Natalie Wright, who had a walk-off home run in the yesterday’s NSIC twinbill opener with the University of Mary, went 3-for-3 and both fellow rookie center fielder Hannah Schmoll (RBI singles in both the fifth and sixth innings) and junior third baseman Sami Schynder had a pair of hits.

The two teams then combined for 23 hits in game two with the Bulldogs holding a 13-10 edge. UMD trailed 4-1 after three-and-a-half innings, but scored four times in the bottom of the fourth and never trailed the rest of the way. Junior catcher Ashley Lewis led the UMD offensive attack with three hits — all doubles — and also drove in three runs. The Bulldogs also got a two-hit outing from Wright and freshmen Alexia Klaas and Becky Smith. Smith blasted a two-run homer (her 11th of the season) and also doubled once to add to her school-record harvest in that department (22).

In addition, she now has 57 RBI to her rookie-year credit — two more than the previous record set by Kierra Jeffers in 2013.  UMD sophomore Sam Hartmann (14-10) allowed seven runs — all earned — and eight hits before being lifted with one out in the sixth innings. Sadler closed out the game, her ninth relief appearance of the season, and did give up one run in the sixth before getting the Beavers to ground out in order in the seventh.

No. 7-seed UMD and No. 10 Southwest Minnesota State University on Thursday morning (April 30) in the opening round of the three-day, double-elimination NSIC/US Bank Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.