MANKATO, Minn. -- Sophomore right-hander Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) limited Bethany Lutheran to one run on eight hits with six strikeouts as the UW-Superior softball team clinched a share of 2022 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular-season championship with a 4-1 victory at the Maverick All-Sports Dome Saturday.
 
The win gives the Yellowjackets (31-8, 18-3) their first-ever UMAC regular-season title. UWS could earn it outright, pending the results of the Northwestern-Crown three-game series to be played Sunday and Monday. 
 
Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) (17-5) kept the Vikings off balance all night, getting eight groundouts and seven flyouts to go with the six strikeouts in her 17th complete game of the season.
 
Superior got all the offense it needed in the top of the first with consecutive fielder's choices from Ellie Macal (Winona, Minn./Cotter) and Bryton Kukowski (Duluth, Minn./Hermantown), before tacking on runs in the second and fifth frames.
 
Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) drew a one-out walk in the first inning and moved to second on Tiffany Kirk's (McHenry, Ill./McHenry East) fielder's choice before Zoe Thomson (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) also coaxed a walk from BLC's Kayla Senne to load the bases. Macal's bouncer plated Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) and Kukowski followed with one to shortstop to score Kirk.
 
The 'Jackets extended the lead to 3-0 in the second as Olivia Bancroft-Hart (Cambria, Wis./Cambria-Friesland) beat an infield single to first base with one out and Kaela Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) singled to right, putting runners on first and second. After a strikeout, Kirk shot a single of her own to right, scoring Bancroft-Hart.
 
Bethany Lutheran (26-14, 16-5) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second when Elizabeth Cizek singled to shortstop with two out, scoring Bailey Erlandson from third. Erlandson singled, advanced to second on a grounder back to the circle and to third on a wild pitch.
 
BLC threatened in the bottom of the fourth with runners on second and third with one out, but Tayler Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) fanned pinch hitter Alyssa Kosta and induced a Katelyn Halbach groundout to third to wriggle out of trouble.
 
Kukowski restored Superior's three-run lead in the fifth with a two-out single to center that chased pinch runner Erika Mattson (Ely, Minn./Ely Memorial) in from second. Thomson doubled to center with one gone, putting a runner in scoring position for Kukowski.
 
The Vikings got a base hit in each of the final three frames, but UWS kept them off the board for the victory.
 
Kukowski finished 3-for-4 with two runs driven in while Kaela Kraemer (Spring Green, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) also had three hits in four at-bats. 
 
Senne (17-10) went the distance in the circle for Bethany, surrendering 11 hits and four earned runs. She struck out eight and walked two.
 
Bethany center fielder Eden Ambrose was a home run short of the cycle, going 3-for-4 to lead the host's offense.
 
The game was forced into the dome as heavy rain made field conditions at the original site, Caswell Park in North Mankato, unplayable.