UMD Softball Loses Twice In NCAA Division II Regionals

May 15

Northland Sports Online

Five outs are all that separated the University of Minnesota Duluth from its first berth ever in an NCAA Division II Super Regional Sunday. The unbeaten and No. 2-seeded Bulldogs were clinging to a 1-0 lead over once-beaten Augustana College with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning before Viking second baseman Kelsey Kalkman jacked a three-run home run to give her club a 3-1 victory.

The No. 1-seeded Vikings then went on to shade UMD 1-0 in the title game at the NCAA II Central 1 Regional, putting the clamps on one of the Bulldogs’ most successful seasons ever. UMD, which came into the day having won 21 of its last 24 games, finished the year with a 33-17 overall record and became the first Bulldog club ever to win two games in NCAA II postseason play.

In the 3-1 setback, catcher Ashley Johnson, one of six Bulldog seniors who closed out their respective collegiate careers Sunday, singled home sophomore shortstop Kierra Jeffers in the top of the third inning for the only UMD run of the afternoon.

Sophomore second baseman and 2011 All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference first team selection Tyra Kerr had two hits of UMD’s seven hits while Megan Mullen (16-9), the 2011 NSIC Freshman of the Year, took the loss — her first in her last 13 decisions — after giving up three runs in two innings of relief. Mullen and starter Heather Stemper both surrendered three hits.

UMD managed just one hit — a leadoff single by Kerr in the second inning — off Augustana’s Ashley Meyer in the rematch. Stemper (12-6) , in her final appearance as a Bulldog, scattered seven hits and allowed the one run over five inning before giving way to Mullen.

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