SUPERIOR, Wis. – In a matchup between the top two teams in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC), UW-Superior returned to the NBC Spartan Sports Complex Friday to open a key three-game series against Bethany Lutheran. With both teams already having secured postseason berths, the opener carried significant implications in the race for the regular season title.
In a tightly contested game dominated by pitching and defense, it was Bethany Lutheran who broke through with a pair of sixth-inning runs, handing the Yellowjackets a 2-0 defeat in the opening game of the three-game series.
Abby Mitchell (Cloquet, Minn./Carlton) drops to 6-2 with a complete-game effort for the Yellowjackets, allowing eight hits and two earned runs over seven innings. She struck out five and did not issue a walk.
With the loss, the Yellowjackets fall to 29-9 overall and 14-2 in UMAC play, while Bethany Lutheran improves to 24-12, jumping into the top spot in the standings.
Game Notes
- Both teams were held scoreless through the first five innings, with Superior collecting just three hits during that stretch.
- Peyton Bennett (Harrisburg, S.D./Harrisburg) led off the bottom of the first with a single, and Lily Hanson (Cloquet, Minn./Esko) followed with a sacrifice bunt to move her into scoring position, but Bennett was left stranded at second. She was one of just two Yellowjackets to reach second.
- Baylee O'Donnell (Mendota Hights, Minn./Richfield) and MyKenzie Leccia (Somerset, Wis./Somerset) each added base hits in the middle innings, while Karen Balabon (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) reached base twice with a single in the third and a walk in the sixth.
- Ellie Macal (Winona, Minn./Cotter) delivered a leadoff single in the seventh, but the Yellowjackets were unable to advance a runner past second base.
- Despite getting the leadoff batter aboard in three separate innings, Superior finished 0-for-6 with runners on base.
- Yellowjacket hitters struck out nine times, including three looking with runners on.
- Bethany Lutheran broke through in the sixth inning when Kaija Mork followed a single and a pinch runner with a two-run home run to left field, her seventh of the season, to provide the game's only runs.
- Bethany Lutheran's Emily Meyer went the distance in the circle, scattering five hits, striking out nine, and walking one in the shutout effort.
- The Yellowjackets committed two errors defensively but otherwise limited the Vikings' scoring opportunities until the sixth.
UW-Superior and Bethany Lutheran will conclude their three-game weekend set Saturday, May 3, with a doubleheader that could decide the regular-season UMAC title. First pitch is set for 11 a.m. at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex.
