DE PERE – St. Norbert College and Benedictine University brought out the heavy artillery offensively and fought to a split in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader at Miron Construction Field at Mel Nicks Sports Complex.
The Green Knights (11-13, 3-5 NACC) battled back to win the opener 10-9 in eight innings before the Eagles (19-5, 5-3 NACC) returned the favor to come back and take the nightcap 11-6 in eight innings.
In the opener, Benedictine scored one run in the top of the first inning before the Green Knights immediately countered with three runs in te bottom of the frame. Morgan Jarvi (pictured) singled to bring home Elly Kirst, who led off the inning with a triple. Grendel Sprong added a single with both runners moving up later in the inning, followed by an Ava Engwall two-run single. Benedictine would score five runs in the top of the second and one more in the top of the fifth to take a 7-3 lead.
St. Norbert battled back with five runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth on three hits. A Sprong double plated Kirst who had walked with one out. Allison Ardito coaxed a walk to load the bases and Emma Schmidt followed with a grand slam to straightaway center field to put the Green Knights ahead 8-7. Benedictine would counter with two runs in the top of the sixth. Sprong then led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run to tie things at 9-9.
Benedictine had a pair of baserunners reach in the top of the eighth inning but the Green Knights got out of the jam. Following an out to lead off the bottom of the eighth, Molly Reichenberger and Kirst had back-to-back singles. Jarvi then hit a ball up the middle that scored Reichenberger for the win.
The Green Knights were outhit 17-12 but cashed in most of their scoring opportunities. Sprong was 3-for-4 with three runs scored, two runs batted in with a double and home run. Jarvi was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Kirst finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a triple. Schmidt was 2-for-3 with four runs batted in on her grand slam. Addison Luebke got the win in the circle, allowing five hits and two runs in three innings of relief.
The second game featured 26 hits, 14 by the Eagles and 12 from the Green Knights. Benedictine scored once in the top of the first but the Green Knights tied it on Sprong’s solo home run in the bottom half. The Eagles scored four runs in the top of the third for a 5-1 lead, but St. Norbert again rallied with four runs of its own on an Ardito RBI double, a Schmidt RBI single and a Morgan Hansel two-run double to knot things at 5-5. The Green Knights took a 6-5 lead when Sprong’s RBI double brought home Kirst in the bottom of the fourth inning.
That lead held up until the seventh, when Benedictine’s Haley Barnes hit a solo home run to tie things at 6-6. The Green Knights had a golden opportunity to secure the sweep when they had runners at second and third and one out in the bottom of the seventh but did not score. Benedictine would then score five runs on five hits in the top of the eighth to salvage a split.
Ardito was 3-for-4 with a double, run batted in and run scored, while Sprong was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, two runs batted in, two doubles and a home run. Hansel was 2-for-4 with two runs batted in and a double. Luebke took the loss in 1 1/3 innings pitched of relief.
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