Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State third baseman Jillian Noel swings at a pitch during a doubleheader against Sioux Falls in Marshall on Wednesday. The Mustangs defeated the Cougars 6-4 in the first game before falling 1-0 in the second.

MARSHALL — Jillian Noel continued her streak of clutch hitting at home on Wednesday afternoon, driving in the game-winning runs to give the Southwest Minnesota State softball team a 6-4 win in the first game of its doubleheader against Sioux Falls. While SMSU’s defense grew stronger in the second game, the bats faltered and the Mustangs settled for a split with a 1-0 loss in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

With the game tied at 4-4, the bottom of the sixth inning started out inauspiciously with consecutive outs for the Mustangs. The tide started to turn when Makenna Waldow came in as a pinch hitter and reached first base on a throwing error. Mikayla Berge came in as a pinch runner and advanced to third on an Abby Russell single.

With two outs and runners on the corners, Jillian Noel came up to the plate. Russell stole second on the first pitch of the at-bat and Noel sized up the second and smacked it hard into right field. Berge and Russell both scored, giving the Mustangs a 6-4 lead heading into the seventh inning.

Noel’s game-winning hit marked the fourth time in the Mustangs’ last five home games that the senior third baseman has had a go-ahead RBI. Three of those four hits were for the final lead change of the game.

“I really love being in those situations. Those are my favorites,” Noel said. “Two outs, my runners are on third and second, I once again looked at my girl Berge and said, ‘I’m bringing you home,’ and Abby Russell wanted to get in there too. I enjoy those situations so much.”

The victory in the doubleheader’s first game was the Mustangs’ 18th of the season, surpassing their final win total from last year’s 17-32 campaign. SMSU head coach Bailey Bouman attributed the rapid increase in wins to the team’s tenacity.

“We stay in it. We keep fighting. Our pitchers keep us in the game and our offense always keeps plugging away,” Bouman said. “I think they’ve done a really good job of grinding.”

The Cougars wouldn’t go quietly into the night. An error, a single and a walk loaded the bases with no outs when Riley Schwisow clobbered a fly ball to right field. In what could have been a sacrifice fly, Abby Boxrud made the catch and threw the ball on a rope to home plate to hold the runner at third. Russell fielded a ball at short and gunned it to Bull at the plate on the next at-bat to put two away and Humpal fielded a grounder at second to set up the game-sealing out.

Jayden Haley started the Cougars out strong in the top of the third with a leadoff single. After advancing her way to third on consecutive Sioux Falls groundouts, Megan Lawson singled to shortstop to drive in Haley and tie the game up at 1-1.

The Cougars’ rally continued when Taryn Wagner singled and Amber McKinney doubled to left field to drive in a pair of runners for Sioux Falls’ first lead of the day. After McKinney advanced to third on a passed ball, Damaris Cuevas doubled to center field to make it 4-1 before Otte escaped the inning with a strikeout.

In the bottom of the frame, the Mustangs staged a two-out rally of their own to get back in the game. Noel hit a double with one out in the frame but was tagged out advancing to second on an Humpal grounder to put two away with a runner on first. Yet, Humpal stole second to get in scoring position.

Molly Bull barely beat out a ground ball for a single in the next at-bat. As the Sioux Falls first baseman looked at the umpire, awaiting the call, Humpal made the heads-up play to round the corner for a run.

Bull then stole second and advanced to third when Abby Boxrud reached base on a grounder to short. Sioux Falls’ Riley Schwisow fielded the ball but couldn’t make the transition from her glove hand to throwing hand, allowing both runers to reach the corners safely.

Boxrud stole second to put both runners in scoring position and Brynn Webber took advantage, drilling a single up the middle to score Boxrud and Bull. Webber advanced to second when the Cougars attempted to throw Bull out at the plate but wasn’t able to advance any farther before a groundout ended the inning.

“I think they did a good job of just focusing,” Bouman said. “You’ve got to put the ball in play to give yourself a chance and I thought we did a really good job, honestly, with two outs of putting the ball in play and making them make plays.”

Bull was hot at the dish all day long. In addition to scoring twice in the first game, she singled twice in each game to finish with a day-high four hits in six at-bats. The performance brought her batting average up to .262 on the season.

Morgyn Otte pitched the first five innings for the Mustangs. While she struggled in the third, she held the Cougars without a run in each of her other four innings in the circle. She finished her day on the mound allowing eight hits — four of which came in the third — and no walks while striking out a batter.

“Just trusting that my hitters are going to get runs back, knowing that they had my back,” Otte said when asked about her thought process heading into the fourth inning. “Just pounding the strike zone, finding my own zone and using my strengths.”

Miller closed out the game on the mound, pitching two scoreless innings while recording the win in the game. She allowed one hit, one walk and struck out a batter in the relief appearance.

Humpal and Bull started the bottom of the second inning with consecutive hard-hit balls to right field. While Humpal’s hit was caught for an out, an error on Bull’s allowed her to sprint to second base with just one out. Bull again sprinted to third on a wild pitch to get just 60 feet from the day’s first run.

Boxrud battled through a nine-pitch at-bat for a walk and stole second to put two runners in scoring position and Webber drew a walk on another eight-pitch battle to load the bases with one out.

Paris Van Dyke hit a single up the middle and Sioux Falls, instead of going for the force, attempted to make the play at the plate. Bull beat the throw for the go-ahead run but a strikeout and a fly out limited the damage to a 1-0 Mustang lead.

Game 2

In the top of the fifth inning, the Cougars broke the scoring drought to take a 1-0 lead. McKinney led the inning off with a walk and advanced to second on a Kenzie Raymond single. Noel caught a liner at third and gunned the ball to first for a double play but Emma Barta came back with a single to left field to score McKinney.

Barta and Bull were the only players with multiple hits in the second game, singling each for their respective teams. Neither team recorded an extra-base hit on the day.

Miller pitched the full seven innings in her second outing of the day, holding the Cougars to five hits and four walks while striking out five batters. She allowed just one earned run but a lack of run support dropped her record to 10-15 on the season.

Sioux Falls kept coming in strong in their next turn at bat. A single and a walk put two runners on with no outs for the Cougars but Miller fielded a line-drive for the first out and Humpal fielded a grounder and tagged a baserunner out to put two away. An infield pop out to Humpal on the next at-bat got the Mustangs out of the jam unscathed.

“Defensively I think we did a good job. We just buckled down and we made plays when we had to, but it’s tough to win a game when you don’t score,” Bouman said.

SMSU moves to 10-12 in conference and 19-26 overall with the split, good for eighth in the NSIC. Sioux Falls moves to 7-15 in conference and 16-27 overall.

The Mustangs will head east this weekend to take on Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday and Winona State on Sunday. Concordia-St. Paul’s 16-2 conference record puts them second in the NSIC behind Augustana while WInona State ranks fifth at 11-5.

Bouman said the Mustangs need to lock in and figure out how to win on the road when asked about this weekend’s road trip, noting that SMSU is 1-12 in hostile territory this season.

SMSU’s Saturday doubleheader against the Golden Bears will get started at noon while Sunday’s doubleheader against the Warriors is scheduled for 1 p.m.