MINNEAPOLIS -- Behind a strong pitching performance by Olivia O'Connor (FY, White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake HS) in the second game, the Augsburg University softball team closed its season with a split of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader with Concordia College-Moorhead on Tuesday afternoon.

THE BASICS
SCORES: Concordia-Moorhead 4, Augsburg 2; Augsburg 9, Concordia-Moorhead 1 (5 inn.)
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field, Minneapolis
RECORD: Augsburg 5-29 overall (2-20 MIAC), Concordia 21-19 overall (9-13 MIAC).

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
• Tied 1-1 after three innings, Concordia scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning -- coming on a passed ball, wild pitch and a throwing error -- to take a 4-1 lead. The Auggies cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth and had the potential tying run at the plate in the seventh, but could not get any more runs across. Augsburg stranded six runners on base in the first game.
• Katie Manecke (FY, Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS) scored on a groundout by O'Connor in the first inning for the Auggies.
• With runners at the corners with one out in the sixth, Augsburg pulled off a delayed double-steal, as Chloe Stockinger (FY, Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice HS) stole second and pinch-runner Sammie Balint (SO, Golden Valley, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) stole home.
• Stockinger and Malia Schubert (FY, Mantorville, Minn./Kasson-Mantorville HS) had two hits each for the Auggies in the first game.
• Sabriya Passmore (SO, Apple Valley, Minn./Apple Valley HS) started in the pitching circle and threw 3.2 innings, with Bella Kallas (SR, Big Lake, Minn./Big Lake HS) throwing 3.1 innings of relief and striking out two.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
• O'Connor pitched a five-inning complete game for the Auggies, striking out two against just two walks and two hits.
• The Auggies jumped on the board early, scoring four runs on five hits in the bottom of the first inning. Passmore singled home Manecke, and Sara Deming (FY, Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS) hit a two-run triple to plate Passmore and Mackenzie Evenson (SR, St. Louis Park, Minn./St. Louis Park HS). Deming later came home on a wild pitch.
• Another run came across in the third inning, as Grace Syson (FY, Oshkosh, Wis./Lourdes Academy HS) hit her first collegiate extra-base hit, a double, and came across on a double by Olivia Dynneson (FY, Minneapolis, Minn./South HS).
• Augsburg ended the game in the fifth inning via the NCAA eight-run rule -- its first run-rule win of the season. A pair of walks and a groundout put runners at second and third, and Stockinger hit a single to drive in Deming. A double by Dynneson plated Syson, a fielder's choice by Schubert plated Stockinger, and a Manecke single drove home Dynneson to end the game.
• Dynneson went 3-for-3 with two RBI, while Stockinger, Passmore and Manecke had two hits each, and Deming had two RBI.

FOR THE FOES
• Megan Gavin had 11 strikeouts against one walk and six hits to earn the first-game win for Concordia, which clinched the final seed in the six-team MIAC postseason playoffs with the victory.
• Gavin had both Concordia hits in the second game, including an RBI single to plate Ellie Tofteland in the third inning.