St. Cloud, Minnesota — Kameryn Etherington belted a pair home runs and pitched five solid innings in leading the Northwestern College softball team to a 10-4 win against the University of Minnesota-Crookston in the first game on Saturday at the Kelly Laas Memorial Tournament. Northwestern dropped its second game of the day to Southwest Minnesota State, 8-4, and is now 3-3 this season.
Etherington paced the Raider offense, going 2-for-3 at the plate to go with a career-best five RBI and two home runs. The freshman’s first round-tripper was a three-run shot in the top of third inning to put Northwestern up 4-0. Etherington added a two-run shot in the Raiders six-run, sixth inning.
Etherington excelled in the circle for head coach Shane Bouman’s squad as well, earning her second win of the season (2-1) where she gave up five hits and one earned run in five innings. She struck out five before giving way to Samantha Ubben and Sydnee Isom who both pitched one inning.
Northwestern totaled 10 hits; both Emily Bosch and Jessica Mouw had two each and Jennifer Boeve, Erika McKenney, Emily Strasser and Bri Giordano added one.
Coach Bouman’s club grabbed a 1-0 lead when Etherington reached base on a walk and scored on a single from Mouw. Leading 4-3, Northwestern blew the game open in the sixth, scoring six runs with nine players combing to bat. Bosch hit an RBI single, Boeve belted an RBI triple and Etherington capped the scoring with a two-run home run.
Sofia Gombos (0-3) took the loss for Crookston, giving up six hits and four runs in four innings. Hannah Macias and Dana Zarn totaled two hits each.
Northwestern totaled 10 hits in its 8-4 loss to Southwest Minnesota State, three by Boeve who scored two runs and drove in one. McKenney went 2-3 with a home run and Bosch also had two hits for Bouman’s club.
Ubben (1-2) gave up three hits and six runs, just one earned, in 4.1 innings of work in taking the hard-luck loss.
Northwestern claimed a 1-0 lead on a two-out RBI single by Giordano that scored Boeve from second. The Mustangs came back with three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, all but one unearned, for a 6-1 lead.
The Raiders answered with a run in each of the final three innings; Jordyn Kramer had an RBI single in the fifth, Boeve drove in a run with a groundout in the sixth and McKenney belted a solo home run in the seventh.
