St. Norbert Drops Pair of Heartbreakers to UW-Eau Claire

From Sports Information Director, April 21, 2012 | Softball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College battled perennial national power UW-Eau Claire right down to the wire in both games of a non-conference doubleheader at Mel Nicks Field but dropped both games by scores of 4-3 in 10 innings and 2-1.

The Green Knights (11-14) had a golden opportunity to win the opener when Morgan Buboltz led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a double. Following a sacrifice bunt, the Blugolds intentionally walked the next two hitters to load the bases. Eau Claire pitcher Laura Raflik then got two infield popups to get out of the jam.

Eau Claire (22-10) scored the winning run in the top of the 10th on a two-out single by Amanda Fischer.

St. Norbert got single runs in the third and fourth inning to tie the game at 2-2, getting an RBI single from Buboltz and an RBI single from Samantha Gross. Steph Brunette's RBI single in the bottom of the seventh tied the game at 3-3 to force extra innings.

Brittany Narges was 4-for-5 in the opener, while Buboltz was 2-for-5. Shannen Schmidt took the tough loss for the Green Knights, scattering 13 hits with two walks and 10 strikeouts. Schmidt also forced the Blugolds to strand 15 runners on base.

St. Norbert took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning in the nightcap when Gross' RBI single plated Jessica DeMeuse. The Blugolds tied it in the sixth, and got the winning run with two outs in the seventh when Fischer's RBI double scored Taylor Pierce on a controversial tag play at the plate.

Morgan Rusch took the loss for St. Norbert, allowing seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The Green Knights had just four hits in the game.