WAYNE, Neb. - No stranger to the elements, the University of Mary Softball team took on Wayne State College in a doubleheader today with the weather kicking up gusts of wind up to 40 miles per hour.
 
Despite the encroachment of mother nature, the Marauders (12-19, 1-4 NSIC) drew a split against the Wildcats (17-9, 3-3 NSIC) as U-Mary won the first game, 3-2, but fell in the second game, 1-0, in nine innings; playing a regular length baseball game rather than a collegiate softball game.
 
Coming off tough losses to #18 Augustana College, U-Mary was itching to rebound with some wins. The Wildcats opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Sam O'Brien reached on a fielder's choice with bases loaded to score Jordan King from third base, putting the Marauders in an early 1-0 hole in the first game.
 
U-Mary responded quickly in the top of the second inning when Taylor Mendez brought her big bat and sent a shot to deep left field to tie the game at 1-1. The Marauders added one more in the top of the third inning, with runners at the corners, Nena Dudley drew the throw down to second base and the errant toss allowed Alexandra McDermott to score from third base, giving U-Mary a 2-1 lead.
 
The Marauders got one more in the top of the fourth when Kristin Ormsby drew a two-out walk and stole second base during Nicole O'Haver's at bat. O'Haver responded with a double to left field that scored Ormsby and extended U-Mary's lead to 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
 
From there the game rested on Dudley's shoulders, who got the start in both games for the Marauders, and she responded with four strikeouts and only eight hits given up in seven innings for U-Mary.
 
Wayne State got one more in the bottom of the seventh when Kaiti Williams drew a bases loaded, two-out walk, to score Jalyn Zeiss, but Dudley was able to settle down and forced a groundball fielder's choice from Kelcie Bormann to end the game and make the score final at 3-2 in favor of the Marauders.
 
The second game turned into a fantastic pitcher's duel as both starting pitchers went at least eight innings, unfortunately someone had to be on the losing side and it ended up being the Marauders.
 
U-Mary had a couple opportunities to get some runs across during the course of the game, McDermott had a one-out single and stolen base in the top of the first but wasn't able to cross the plate. The Marauders had bases loaded in the second inning but couldn't find purchase to drive a few runs home, and Alana Norman got a lead off single and stolen base in the top of the fifth inning but was stranded as Bormann, who had 11 strikeouts on the day, sat the next three batters down.
 
The Wildcats got the lone run of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning when Williams led off with a single back up the middle. After a pinch runner came into the game, a sacrifice bunt moved her over to second base and the deciding hit came from O'Brien whose single was deep enough to drive in the pinch runner from second base and gave U-Mary a 1-0 loss in the second game.
 
Mendez went 1-for-3 in the first game with her blast to left field; she also provided a steady glove in the field at shortstop with four assists and four putouts. Mendez ended up going 1-for-3 in the second game as well with a single, RBI, and a walk, along with five assists in the field.
 
O'Haver ended up with two hits in three at bats in the first game, a single and double, to go with her RBI. She also had a single in the second game.
 
Francine Villalobos provided the speed on the base paths as she had three stolen bases in the first game to go with one more in the second game. She also had a single in the first game and drew two walks in the second game.
 
Alana Norman had two stolen bases and two walks on the day to go with her single in the second game.
 
Dudley ended up with a total of 15.1 innings pitched along with 11 strikeouts, three walks, and had one stolen base in the first game.
 
The Marauders will return home to Bismarck for a early week game on Tuesday, March 31, when they host Bemidji State University at the University of Mary Softball field.
 
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