ST. PAUL, Minn. – The UW-River Falls softball team dropped its first game of a WIAC doubleheader versus UW-Platteville prior to a 1-0 walk-off win in eight innings on Monday afternoon on the campus of Concordia-St. Paul.
The series versus the Pioneers were moved to St. Paul due to poor conditions at Perkins Stadium in River Falls.
Kelly Aultman's walk-off single to right center in the bottom of the eighth scored
Mavis Sachs for the game-winning run during a 1-0 win, which clinched a spot in the WIAC Tournament, set to take place May 6-8 by the No. 1 seed UW-La Crosse. The Falcons' seed and opponent is to be determined.
UW-Platteville 5, UW-River Falls 2
Pioneer starting pitcher Jordan Johnson threw a complete game and allowed just six hits while UWRF conceded a combined five UWP runs in the fifth and sixth inning.
With two out, the Pioneers strung together four-straight hits to take a 2-0 lead, knocking out Falcon starting pitcher
Juliana Reynolds, who was replaced by
Maggie Wallin.
An Aultman RBI fielder's choice score
Megan Halvorson to trim the Platteville lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth before the visitors added two more the next inning.
Down 5-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh,
Mavis Sachs singled, stole second, and scored off a
Hannah Richards single to cut the UWP lead to 5-2. Johnson got Aultman to ground out the next at bat for the final out.
Richards led the Falcons with two hits.
UW-River Falls 1, UW-Platteville 0 (8 inn.)
A pitcher's duel in game two led to seven scoreless innings prior to Aultman's heroics in the eighth.
Corinne Roe tossed her sixth complete game of the season and her first shutout, limiting the Pioneers to just two base hits while improving her season record to 4-5.
In the bottom half of the first extra inning, Sachs led off with a double to left center, and advanced to third off a Richards fly out. Aultman then smoked a single to right center, easily scoring Sachs for the game-winning run.
Sachs led the team with two hits, and has six hits in her last three games.
