St. Norbert Splits on First Day of Augustana Tournament

From Sports Information Director, March 31, 2012 | Softball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

MOLINE, Ill. - St. Norbert College split a pair of games at the Augustana College Invitational at the Green Valley Sports Complex. The Green Knights topped Cornell College 4-1 before falling to the host Vikings 9-1.

The Green Knights (4-8) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the Cornell game when Abby Gildernick cranked a solo home run, the team's first of the season. St. Norbert tacked on three runs in the fourth when Morgan Buboltz scored on an error, Samantha Gross hit a sacrifice fly and Steph Brunette had an RBI single.

Morgan Rusch went the distance to get the win for the Green Knights, scattering eight hits with one walk and one strikeout to improve to 2-4. Brunette was 2-for-4 in the game for St. Norbert, which had only five hits.

Augustana broke open a 4-0 game with five runs in the top of the seventh inning. Shannen Schmidt's RBI grounder produced St. Norbert's only run. Schmidt took the loss, allowing 10 hits and four earned runs.