BISMARCK, N.D. - With gusts up to 30 miles per hour, the wind seemingly stayed in town from yesterday as the University of Mary Softball team took on their upstate rivals, Minot State University, in a makeup game from three weeks ago.
 
The game had shades of what was seen the previous day as the Marauders (19-26, 8-11 NSIC) struggled to get the offense going against the Beavers (27-16, 8-12 NSIC) and U-Mary ultimately fell in the contest, 6-0.
 
Both teams were held hitless in the first inning, but Minot State struck first in the top of the second inning after getting some help from the Marauders defense. MeLanie Rodriguez struck out the lead off batter and forced a fly ball to left field, but the wind got ahold of it and the ball fell in and out of the left fielder's glove to allow the runner to get to second base with one out.
 
Back-to-back doubles from Alyssa Cornejo and Leyna Downey moved two runners across and Rodriguez got out of the inning with two more strikeouts, but not before the Marauders were looking at a 2-0 deficit going into the bottom of the second inning.
 
While Minot State put the ball in play where nobody was covering, the Marauders hit right at the fielders as Alana Norman had two hot line drives in the game that were snagged by the third basemen and shortstop. Taylor Mendez had a deep fly ball to left field but the fielder had to take about two steps to camp underneath it, and there were several hard hits on the ground that found the gloves of the infielders for the Beavers.
 
Minot State got two more in the top of the third when Melissa Bell drew a lead off walk and Ali Cygan drove her home with a double in the left center gap. Cygan ended up scoring a ground ball single through the left side from Cornejo and U-Mary now faced a 4-0 disadvantage heading into the bottom of the third.
 
The Marauders had a chance in the third inning to cut into the lead as Demaree Rodriguez got a one-out single to left field and advanced to second base on a wild pitch, but a two-out groundball from Norman was picked up by the third basemen who caught Rodriguez in no-man's land between second and third base, and the Marauders was thrown out at third base after a brief rundown.
 
The Beavers threatened to add to their lead in the top of the fourth inning when Riley Cygan drew a lead off walk and ended up at third base from a double from Bell. The Marauders buckled down and took advantage of a mistake from the runner at third when Kristin Ormsby picked up the groundball and caught the runner in a pickle between third and home. After a couple of tosses back-and-forth, MeLanie tagged the runner out and tossed the ball over to Mendez, who was covering third base, and got the runner out trying to advance to second base.
 
With the momentum seemingly in U-Mary's grasp, they had another good chance of cutting into Minot State's lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Amber Gamboa and Colleen Crutchfield had back-to-back singles to put runners at first and second with one out. Unfortunately, the Marauders were unable to capitalize with the runners on base as Mindy Lorimor, the starting pitcher for the Beavers, struck out the next batter and forced a popup from Nena Dudley that was caught by the shortstop to end the threat.
 
Minot State added two more insurance runs in the top of the sixth when Lorimor reached on an error by the second baseman when her popup in the infield was knocked around by the wind and went in-and-out of Demaree's glove. Jordan Grant dropped down a quick bunt with nobody playing in and with two outs and runners at first and second, Bell sent a shot to left field that scored the runners and she ended up with her second double of the day to pad the Beaver's lead at 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth.
 
U-Mary was unable to score any runs in the sixth inning and it came down to their last at bat to try and salvage the win. Mendez led the inning off with a single to left field on the first pitch she saw, but Lorimor proved her status as a reliable pitcher when she struck out the next batter and forced two popups in the infield to cut the the Marauder rally short as U-Mary lost the game, 6-0.
 
The Marauder's offense was stagnant as they only managed four hits in the game, and although MeLanie was credited with the loss, she had a solid performance in the circle as she struck out six and walked only three while being charged with three earned runs.
 
U-Mary will be taking on Minnesota State University in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 18, starting at 1 PM, for their Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
 
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