WEST ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Crookston softball team fell 6-1 to Minnesota State University Moorhead in their final game of the West St. Paul Dome Invitational in West St. Paul, Minn. Earlier in the day, Minnesota Crookston picked up a 16-2 exhibition win over Anoka-Ramsey Community College.

Minnesota Crookston has moved to 4-7 on the season as they head into their Tucson Invitational Games March 12-18 at Lincoln Park in Tucson, Ariz. UMC splits their four non-conference games with MSU Moorhead 2-2. They will next play the Dragons April 2 at 12 and 2 p.m. at UMC Softball Field in a conference doubleheader.

"We definitely came out swinging in our exhibition in the morning," said Head Coach Don Stopa. "We had a lot of base-runners and did a good job of going deep into counts and hitting in those counts. Paige and Sammy also threw well in the circle, especially Paige who had her best outing thus far. In game two, we were outplayed by MSU Moorhead. We had a couple of mental errors and they made us pay each time. We had some good at-bats and got people on base, but struggled to plate those runners. Mikayla threw well enough to win, but we didn't help her out defensively or at the plate."

The U of M Crookston gave Mikayla Jones (So., RHP, Huxley, Iowa) the ball against the Dragons. Jones would get the loss after giving up five earned runs on seven hits in five innings pitched.

MSU Moorhead would take the 1-0 lead in the first as Taylor Roddie hit a solo home run.
The Dragons would add three runs in the third inning. Roddie would open the inning with a single and would come around to score as Jones walked Emma Dummer with the bases loaded. 

Madison Paige would come across the plate when Savannah Tweet grounded out to short stop. Jordan Hall would then hit a sacrifice groundout to plate Lauren Meeker to make it 4-0.

Minnesota Croookston would get a run back in the fourth inning when Jenna Boardman (Jr., SS, Genoa, Wis.) singled to drive in Morgan Duda (So., OF, Clinton Township, Mich.). The Golden Eagles would strand two on base but would cut the lead to 4-1.

MSU Moorhead would extend their lead to 5-1 when Tweet crossed the plate on a groundout from Aunica Novacek. Tweet had tripled earlier in the inning.

The Dragons would make it 6-1 in the sixth as Dummer singled to drive in Roddie.
The Golden Eagles would threaten in the seventh with a lead-off triple from Boardman and a single from Bayliss, but both players would be stranded as MSU Moorhead would hang on for the 6-1 win.

Heather Cunningham (Jr., RHP, Jacksonville, Fla.) would also pitch for Minnesota Crookston, going one inning and giving up one earned run on three hits.

The Golden Eagles looked to Bayliss at the plate, who was 2-of-4, while Boardman was 2-of-3 with one RBI. Hailey Fitzpatrick (Fr., 2B, Becker, Minn.) would go 1-of-4, while Maggie Morales (So., OF/1B, Tucson, Ariz.) was 1-of-3.

The win for the Dragons went to Tori White, who pitched seven innings and gave up no earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts.

The Golden Eagles would dominate Anoka-Ramsey in the exhibition as they finished with 16 runs on 13 hits. Paige Pitlick (Fr., RHP, Jordan, Minn.) would get the start and would win the exhibition after giving up just one hit and no earned runs with one strikeout on the game.

Minnesota Crookston would be led by the play of Samantha LeMay (Sr., DP/1B, Belle Plaine, Minn.), who was 2-of-3 with two runs scored and four RBI's, while Khailyn Neumayer (Jr., OF, Morgan Hill, Calif.) was 3-of-4 with four RBI's. Kate Howell (Sr., OF, Badger, Minn.) would go 1-of-4 with three RBI's, while Duda was 2-of-3 with three runs scored and one RBI.

The U of M Crookston would score four runs in the first inning led by a two RBI double from LeMay to score Duda and Sam Rarick (So., UT, East Grand Forks, Minn.).

The Golden Eagles would also have a big fourth inning with four runs. Minnesota Crookston would look to an RBI single from Duda to plate Rarick. Samantha Proctor (Fr., C, Champlin, Minn.) would double to drive home Gabriel Antolak. LeMay would continue her big game with an RBI single to drive in Duda, while Neumayer had an RBI single to plate Proctor.

The Golden Eagles also had a big fifth inning with seven runs crossing the plate. Minnesota Crookston was led by a three RBI double from Howell to clear the bases, scoring Lexie Santoyo, LeMay and Maycee Trujillo (So., 3B/C, Sioux Falls, S.D.).

Sammy Knudson (Sr., RHP, Fergus Falls, Minn.) also pitched in the exhibition, going two innings and giving up just one earned run on no hits with four walks.

Minnesota Crookston will open the Tucson Invitational March 12 with games at 1 p.m. against Central College out of Pella, Iowa and 3:30 p.m. versus Dickinson College out of Carlisle, Pa.