CLERMONT, Fla. — Jordyn Marsh tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings over two games to earn a pair of wins for the Southwest Minnesota State University softball team at THE Spring Games on Friday. The Mustangs opened their day with an 11-3 win over St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.)and finished with a 5-1 win over Dominican (N.Y.). The pair of wins extends SMSU’s win streak into double figures. 

After a 1-7 start to the season, SMSU’s 10-game win streak now has it at 11-7 on the season. The Mustangs will look to continue to roll as they resume play at THE Spring Games against Queens (N.Y.) and Eckerd (Fla.) on Sunday in Clermont, Fla. The first game is slated to start at 1 p.m. while the second is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

SMSU 11, St. Thomas Aquinas 3

The Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs put barrel to ball early and often in the first game of their Friday doubleheader, surging out to an early lead before coasting to an 11-3 win over St. Thomas Aquinas.

The Mustangs first took the lead in the top of the first, when an Abby Boxrud single, and Abby Russell fielder’s choice and an Emma Humpal single loaded the bases with no outs. Paris Van Dyke followed up by fouling off six pitches before earning a walk to drive in the go-ahead run, and Brynn Webber followed up with a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-0 after the first.

St. Thomas scored all of its runs in the bottom of the third while trailing 7-0. Ali Feerick bunter her way on base and an error by Humpal at third allowed Maris Coira to reach successfully to put runners on the corners. After Elia Raposo walked to load the bases, an error by Karlie Miller allowed one unearned run to score and a single from Jes Feerick drove in another pair of unearned runs, cutting SMSU’s lead to 7-3.

From there, however, Marsh relieved Miller and struck out two of the next three batters to end the inning without further damage. Marsh went on to pitch 2 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings, striking out four batters while walking one to earn the win.

Miller surrendered three hits and two walks for three unearned runs over 2 1/3 innings before leaving with a no-decision.

The Mustangs took control of the game in the top of the third, starting with three consecutive singles by Boxrud, Russell and Humpal to drive in one run. After Van Dyke was hit by a pitch to load the bases, St. Thomas replaced Sara Clancy with Madison Puppolo, but the Mustangs kept rallying.

Brynn Webber capitalized on an error by St. Thomas third baseman Trinadey Santiago to drive in one run, Karlie Miller hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in another and a Lexi Ingalls double to left-center made the score 7-0.

Ingalls’ two-run double was the game’s only extra-base hit. She was one of four Mustangs with two RBIs in the game, along with Webber, Van Dyke and Humpal. Boxrud also had a game-high four runs scored on two hits and two walks while Russell scored three runs on a hit and a walk.

Clancy fell to 0-4 on the year by surrendering six earned runs on five hits and a walk over two innings. After Puppolo took over to allow one run over 1/3 innings, Alyssa Liguori finished the game for St. Thomas allowing two earned and two unearned runs on two hits and four walks over 2 2/3 frames.

A throwing error by catcher Olivia Leon allowed Russell to score in the fourth inning after she reached base on a walk, and a Humpal sacrifice fly and a Van Dyke single scored Riley Kramolisch and Boxrud in the fifth.

SMSU 5, Dominican 1

Jordyn Marsh tossed four scoreless innings of relief in the Southwest Minnesota State softball team’s 5-1 win over Dominican on Friday night to earn her second victory of the day and the Mustangs’ 10th consecutive win.

SMSU trailed 1-0 through three innings when Marsh took to the circle for her second relief outing of the day in the fourth. Marsh was nearly unhittable, striking out six batters while allowing one hit and one walk over four shutout innings to improve to 3-2 on the season. The fourth-inning single she allowed was the only hit she surrendered over 6 2/3 total innings of work over the doubleheader.

Morgyn Otte started the game pitching for SMSU, allowing one unearned run on five hits and a pair of walks over three innings. She struck out one batter on the day.

The game was tied at one run apiece when SMSU surged ahead in the fifth inning. Abby Boxrud and Abby Russell started the inning with a pair of singles and, with two runners in scoring position and no outs, Emma Humpal singled up the middle to score the go-ahead run.

Dominican made a pitching change, taking out starting pitcher Gianna Barbieri for Melanie Fiumara. Still, Paris Van Dyke continued the Mustang rally with a sacrifice bunt to score Russell and Brynn Webber singled to score Humpal. After Webber stole second, Marsh hit another RBI single to left field to make the score 5-1.

The Chargers took the lead in the top of the second when Nicole Mata hit an RBI single to score Adriana Barnes for a 1-0 Dominican lead. The Chargers held that lead until the fourth, when Webber hit a leadoff single before eventually scoring on a Kaylee Hafermann single.

Barbieri fell to 0-3 on the season after allowing four earned runs on nine hits over four innings for Dominican while Fiumara allowed one earned run on a pair of hits over two innings.

Russell, Humpal and Webber each racked up a pair of hits for SMSU while Webber also scored a pair of runs. Mata had a game-high three singles for Dominican.