ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Macalester College softball team fell to Bethel University twice in a MIAC doubleheader Sunday afternoon at Ona Orth Complex. Both games went to the eighth inning, as the Scots lost, 6-5 and 7-6 to drop to 13-9 overall and 1-3 in league play. The Royals improve to 7-9, 3-1 MIAC.
In the first game, Macalester overcame a 2-0 deficit with a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth to lead 4-2. First year
Kaela Jackson (Seattle, Wash./James A. Garfield) and sophomore
Claire O'Connor (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) drove in runs. The Royals responded with a run in the fifth and a two-run double by Emily Eaton in the sixth for a 5-4 advantage. With one out in the top of the seventh, O'Connor singled to score first year
Julia Carpenter (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore) from second base to tie the game at 5-5. But in the bottom of the eighth, Bethel loaded the bases with one out and scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch.
Carpenter went 4-for-5 with two runs and three stolen bases, while O'Connor had three hits as the Scots totaled 13 hits as a team.
In Game 2, Macalester took a 3-1 lead with three runs in the top of the second, including a two-run single by junior
Natalie Platt (Boulder, Colo./Boulder). Sophomore
Samantha Barkan (New York, N.Y./Friends Seminary) also drove in a run in the inning. The Royals scored a run in the bottom of the second and two more in the third to regain the upper hand, 4-3. After first year
Emma Hartmann (St. Paul, Minn./Como Park) plated Jackson with a grounder to tie the score in the fourth, Bethel pushed two more runs across in the bottom of the sixth to lead 6-4.
Down to their last out, the Scots came through again in the top of the seventh. O'Connor scored from first on a single by junior
Morghan Bean (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) and an error, then Bean came home from second on a single by senior
Nikki Caicedo (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley) to tie the score at 6-6. But Bethel won in walk-off fashion again, as Eaton singled home Mariah Uphof from second base in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.
Bean, Caicedo, Jackson and Barkan each had two hits, as Jackson and Bean scored two runs apiece in the loss.
Macalester plays a MIAC doubleheader at Hamline University on Wednesday, Apr. 5, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in St. Paul, Minn.
