Sports The Lorian March 12, 2015 7

Klein, Duhawks bounce backDuhawks 2-2 after a pair of double-headers on opening weekend in Minneapolis

by Frank Fernandez | sportswriterAs the Duhawks began their 2015

campaign, they found themselves in Minneapolis for a pair of games against the St. Catharine Wildcats at the Augsburg Dome. The Duhawks hoped to start the season on a high note away from home. The Duhawks left Minneapolis even at 2-2, after they found themselves on opposite ends of a pair of sweeps.

Game one was scoreless into the third when the Wildcats moved the go-ahead run to the third. St. Kate’s top hitter stepped to the plate with two outs and Duhawk senior Holly Klein staring her down from the cir-cle. With the help of senior catch-er Nora Zerante, Klein painted the corner and left the batter staring to end the inning. First-year Savannah Fowler gave the Duhawks their first hit of the day with an infield single in the top of the sixth. However, she was stranded at second as the Duhawks could not capitalize.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Wildcats had a runner in scoring posi-tion with two outs and Loras was look-ing to end the threat. A ground ball was seemingly just what they needed, but the throw was the off the mark. The runner came around and scored to put St. Kate on top, 1-0. The Du-hawks had one final shot at evening the score, but the bats were silent, and

the Duhawks fell, 1-0. The Duhawks came out swinging in

game two, scoring the first run when senior Katie Serpico drove in sopho-more Dani Strobert with an RBI sin-gle. The Duhawks held the 1-0 lead until the Wildcats’ bats came alive. After putting up four in the fourth in-ning, St. Kate’s added two more runs to lead 6-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Head coach Ashley Winter decided to make some changes before the final inning.

“I wanted to shake up our lineup and get more players involved,” Win-ters said. “We have a lot of versatility that I knew we could utilize.”

The Duhawks fed off these chang-es, with first-year Miranda Chapman started the rally with a shot back at the pitcher. The Duhawk dugout came alive and the energy spread to the field, as they loaded the bases for Serpico.

The Duhawks’ top offensive threat saw four straight balls, bringing home Chapman and cutting into the Wildcat lead. Junior Makaila Haase kept the momentum going by driving in an-other run on a fielder’s choice. With runners on first and second, first-year Bria Lenten ripped the first pitch she saw to the fence. The two-run single brought the Duhawks within one and forced a pitching change for St. Kate’s. The lengthy conference on the mound took away the momentum from Loras as Zerante struck out looking, giving the Wildcats a 6-5 victory and a dou-

bleheader sweep. T h e D u h a w k s h o p e d

to turn their luck around on Saturday morning, as they began a doublehead-er against Crown College. G a m e o n e b e g a n w i t h Crown taking a 1-0 lead after the first, due to a few miscues by the Duhawks. In the second, the Duhawks had runners on second and third with sophomore Cate Paulsen at the plate. A hard shot to third was misplayed and allowed the Duhawks to even the score at one. The offense continued as Zer-ante roped a bases-clearing double to put the Duhawks ahead, 3-1. Loras added in-surance runs in the third and fifth to finish off Crown with a 7-1 win.

In game two, the Duhawks contin-ued their offensive display by taking control early on, going ahead 3-0 af-ter two innings. Makaila Haase was dominant on the mound, keeping Crown off the board until the fifth. A pair of errors by the Duhawks allowed Crown to break the shutout, cutting the lead to two. After an insurance run by the Duhawks, they headed into the seventh inning with a 4-1 advantage. After her impressive performance, Haase stepped up to the plate and blasted a solo shot to center to extend the lead to 5-1.

First-year pitcher Emma Corkill took control on the mound and struck out the side to complete the sweep.

The Duhawks will take a break from play before heading to Tuscon, Arizo-na, to compete in the Tuscon Invita-tional. Their first of eight games in the Arizona heat will be against Baldin Wallace on Thursday.

photo courtesy of Jim naprstekSenior Holly Klein fields the ball during the Duhawks’ opening day double-header against St. Catherine’s this weekend. The Duhawks dropped both games, but turned it around with a sweep of Crown the following day.

season statistics(Opening weekend in Minneapolis, MN)

BattingPlayer ............... G h rbi hr slg% ob% avgDanielle Stromert ... 4 4 0 0 .667 .667 .444Savannah Fowler .... 4 5 2 0 .417 .417 .417Miranda Chapman .. 3 1 0 0 .333 .333 .333Briana Minet ........... 4 1 0 0 .333 .333 .333Bria Lenten ............. 4 4 2 0 .286 .333 .286Regan Wolverton .... 4 3 2 0 .250 .250 .250Makaila Haase ........ 4 3 2 1 .462 .286 .231Nora Zerante ........... 4 2 3 0 .300 .273 .200Julie Kistner ............ 3 1 0 0 .125 .125 .125Katie Serpico ........... 4 1 2 0 .111 .429 .111Cate Paulsen ........... 4 1 2 0 .333 .111 .111Kat Angelini ............ 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000Ashlee Hoffmann .... 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000Totals .................4 26 15 1 .318 .331 .243Opponents .........4 24 7 2 .330 .282 .233

PitchingPlayer .......... app-gs ip w-l bb so avg eraHolly Klein ..............2-2 12.0 1-1 3 8 .209 0.00Emma Corkill ..........2-0 2.0 0-0 0 4 .143 0.00Makaila Haase ........2-2 10.1 1-1 2 5 .244 2.71Erin Hosch .............. 1-0 1.2 0-0 0 1 .167 4.22Totals ................. 4 27.0 2-2 5 19 .233 1.56Opponents ......... 4 27.0 2-2 13 22 .243 3.37

st. Catherine’s 1, Loras 0 (Friday, March 6th)

r h eLoras ...................000 000 0 0 1 2St. Catherine’s ....000 001 x 1 6 0Loras: Savannah Fowler — 1-1St. Catherine’s: Megan Lindenfelser — 2-3, runWP: Lindenfelser — 7.0 ip, 0 er, 13 so, 6 bbLP: Holly Klein — 6.0 ip, 0 er, 3 so, 2 bb

Loras 7, Crown 1(Saturday, March 7th)

r h eCrown ................. 100 000 0 1 4 1Loras ....................031 030 x 7 11 2Loras: Bria Lenten — 3-4, 2 runsCrown: Kendra Magaard — 1-3, runWP: Holly Klein — 6.0 ip, 0 er, 5 so, bbLP: Sarah Petkau — 5.0 ip, 6 er, bb

Loras 5, Crown 1 (Saturday, March 7th)

r h eLoras ....................210 100 1 5 8 2Crown .................000 010 0 1 4 3Loras: Dani Stromert — 3-4, 2 runsCrown: Hillary Brondsema — 2-3, rbiWP: Makaila Haase — 6.0 ip, 0 er, 4 so, 2 bbLP: Cearra Dulaney — 7.0 ip, 2 er, so

st. Catherine’s 6, Loras 5 (Friday, March 6th)

r h eSt. Catherine’s ....000 411 0 6 10 1Loras ................... 001 000 4 5 6 0Loras: Katie Serpico — 1-3, 2 rbi, run, bbSt. Catherine’s: Ashley Sis — 2-3, 3 rbi, runWP: Krista Flugstad — 5.1 ip, er, 8 so, 3 bbLP: Makaila Haase — 4.1 ip, 4 er, so

Last chanceBrandenburg, Ward set personal records in ‘last chance’ meets before Nationals

by matthew marter | sportswriterFor a select group of Duhawk runners and throw-

ers, last weekend was the last chance to improve their personal records before the NCAA Nationals meet in North Carolina. These Duhawks compet-ed at two different meets over the weekend, one at UW-Platteville and one at UW-Stevens Point.

On the men’s side, those competing were the 4x400-meter relay, which did not finish the race, senior Nathan Maiers in the weight throw, senior Kyle Ward in the 60-meter dash, and junior Zach Frey in the 800-meter run.

Maiers was unable to improve his ranking in the weight throw after his mark of 16.65 meters at the Conference meet last weekend. Frey also was unable to improve his time in the 800-meter run, but he advances to the NCAA National meet with a ranking of 14th in Division III.

Ward had a phenomenal race Friday night at UW-Platteville, running a 7.00 in the 60-meter pre-lims. However, a little later on in the meet, Ward ran a 6.89 in the finals for the 60. This smashes the old school record for the 60-meter dash, and pushes him into a six-way tie for 8th place in Division III. It also secures a spot for him to run at Nationals in the 60-meter dash.

On the women’s side, senior Morgan Steere competed in the weight throw and shot put. Unfor-tunately, she was unable to improve her marks in either event leaving her ranked 22nd and 32nd in the nation in the respective events.

The other female competing was sophomore Elizabeth Brandenburg, in both the pole vault and 60-meter hurdles. Although she was unable to beat her performance in the pole vault at Conference which solidified her rank of 18th in the nation, she was not going to go down easy in the hurdles. In fact, she dominated the field. In the preliminary heat, she ran an 8.82 in the 60-meter hurdles. This crushes the school record she previously set last weekend at Conference.

The Division III National Indoor Championship meet will take place this Friday and Saturday. Kyle Ward (60-meter dash), Elizabeth Brandenburg (60-meter hurdles), and Zach Frey (800-meter run) will represent the Duhawks in the National Championship.

track & field

Stuck in neutral Men’s tennis team remains winless after 5 matches

by dustin dawson | sportswriterAnother opportunity came and went for the Loras

Men’s tennis team to secure their first victory of the season and a monumental one for first year head coach Ryan Troge.

Loras traveled to UW-Eau Claire last Friday, but saw similar results to their earlier matchups. Suc-cess was hard to come by as the Duhawks traveled into Wisconsin. No Duhawks were able to get into the win column, as Loras dropped the match 9-0, something that has become a trend for the men so far this season.

The Duhawks were led into the matches by senior Brian Falvey, who along with sophomore Neil Kane, were the only Duhawks who were able to win more than one game in singles play. Falvey joined first-year Zach Atzen for doubles play but the duo fell in straight sets 8-4, 8-1, and 8-0.

“We need to play with the cards we are dealt, and just straight outwork other teams,” said Falvey. “I will never make excuses, but we are faced with cer-tain aspects that we have no control over. If we work hard and keep our heads held high, we will win.”

This now puts the Duhawks at 0-5, 0-2 in confer-ence play. Most definitely not the start they want-ed, but there is still a lot of season left for them to correct their mistakes and succeed going forward.

“I feel that we are right on the edge of clicking as a team, and being an absolute threat to the rest of the teams in our conference,” Falvey said. “I have complete faith in our team.”

The team takes a short hiatus before returning to the courts March 21, when they travel to Davenport to take on St. Ambrose.

men’s tennis