DUNDAS, Minn. – The UW-Superior softball team dropped a pair of games to Hamline Saturday at the Dundas Dome, falling 8-0 in five innings in game one and 5-2 in game two.
 
The opener was tight until the Pipers scored seven in the bottom of the fifth to bring the game to an early end.
 
Yellowjackets' right-hander Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) and Hamline righty Alex Molloy kept the game scoreless for two-and-a-half innings, allowing a combined four baserunners before the Pipers got on the scoreboard. 
 
Amber Peterson hit a one-out triple to right-center field, and Gabby Cook followed with an RBI groundout to shortstop for the lead.
 
Kraemer retired the first batter of the fifth on a groundball, but the next seven players reached base. Megan Rubbelke singled down the left-field line with the bases loaded, scoring Cook and Peterson for a 3-0 Hamline advantage. Next up, Molloy plated Riley Husom with a single to right center. Theresa Klinnert then made it a 5-0 game with a single through the right side that scored Rubbelke.
 
Kraemer issued a walk to April Jacobs to load the bases again prior to being relieved by Marley Burd (Glendale, Ariz./Centennial), who plunked Kiana Island, forcing in a sixth run. Then, with Cora Stallcup batting, Klinnert scored on a passed ball.
 
Burd stuck out Peterson for the second out of the inning, but a second passed ball with Cook at the plate chased Jacobs in, triggering the run rule.
 
Kraemer fell to 3-3 with the loss, going 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits and seven earned runs. She walked four and struck out two. 
 
UWS tallied four hits in the first game – one apiece from Olivia Bancroft-Hart (Cambria, Wis./Cambria-Friesland), Kaela Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights), Davriana Horvath (Esko, Minn./Esko) and Burd.
 
The Pipers scored runs in each of the first three innings of game two to open a 3-1 lead. Trailing, 1-0, Superior knotted the game with a run in the bottom of the first when Kaela Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) scored her sister with a sacrifice fly to right field before HU retook the lead.
 
Hamline added two more in the top of the sixth inning on a two-out single up the middle from Cook. The 'Jackets notched one in the bottom of the frame with a Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) grounder to third base that scored Horvath, but they got no closer.
 
Hamline (3-3) outhit Superior, 9-6, in the second game, led by Klinnert, who was 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and run scored.
 
Burd reached all three times, going 2-for-2 with a double and walk. Horvath was 2-for-3 with a run.
 
Malania Madill (Canyon, Minn./South Ridge) (2-2) went the distance for UWS in the circle. She surrendered four earned runs and three walks while fanning three.
 
Superior (5-5) will open its home schedule next Saturday, hosting UW-River Falls for a 1 p.m., doubleheader.