MINNEAPOLIS -- Scoring nine unanswered runs after trailing 8-0 in the second inning, the Augsburg University softball team claimed a 9-8, eight-inning victory to gain a split of a doubleheader with Macalester College, opening Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Wednesday. Macalester won the first game 7-0.

THE BASICS
SCORES: Macalester 7, Augsburg 0; Augsburg 9, Macalester 8 (8 inn.)
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field, Minneapolis
RECORD: Augsburg 16-4 overall (1-1 MIAC), Macalester 12-6 overall (1-1 MIAC)

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
• Augsburg was limited to just four hits in the opening-game loss -- singles by Lola Pilon (FY, St. Paul, Minn./Mounds Park Academy HS) and Zoie Johnson (JR, Carlton, Minn./Esko HS) in the first inning, a single by Johnson in the fourth inning and a double by Torrie Rehder (JR, Goodhue, Minn./Goodhue HS) in the sixth inning. Augsburg left three runners on base in the game.
• Macalester scored three runs in the second inning, three runs in the fifth inning and a run in the seventh to cap the victory. The Scots had 12 hits in the game.
• Olivia O'Connor (SR, White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake HS) took the loss with 4.1 innings of work in the pitching circle. Libby Moore (SR, Springville, Iowa/Springville HS) had a strikeout against a walk in 2.2 innings of relief.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
• Augsburg trailed 8-0 after Macalester's half of the second inning, as the Scots sent 12 batters to the plate, claiming six hits and taking advantage of two Augsburg errors.
• The Auggie comeback started in the bottom of the second, sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring seven runs on four hits and two errors. The biggest hit of the inning was a three-run single by Pilon, as Moore, Katie Manecke (SR, Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS) and Rehder all scored. Manecke also had an RBI single in the second inning for the Auggies.
• Augsburg tied the game at 8-8 in the bottom of the third, as Johnson hit an RBI single to drive in Jayden Evenson (SO, Mosinee, Wis./Mosinee HS).
• After that, the game became a pitchers' duel between Auggie starter Morgann Paaske (JR, Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central HS) and Macalester reliever Rileigh Morlock, who had pitched a complete-game effort in the first game. Paaske threw 147 pitches, with 85 strikes, in all eight innings of the second game, striking out four against four walks and nine hits -- just three hits after the second inning. Meanwhile, after throwing 88 pitches in the first game Morlock threw 93 pitches (65 strikes) in 5.1 innings of relief for the Scots, striking out five against no walks and five hits.
• With the international tiebreaker in the eighth inning, the Scots stranded a pair of runners in the top half. In the bottom half, with Rehder placed on second, she advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a two-out, infield single by Olivia Hennager (SO, Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley HS)
• Johnson went 3-for-5 with an RBI, while Hennager had two hits and two RBI in the second game. Rehder scored two runs.

FOR THE FOES
• Morlock struck out nine against one walk and four hits in the first-game shutout win for Macalester.
• Elizabeth Welch had four hits in the doubleheader, including two doubles, and Sophie Futchko had two doubles in the second game.

UP NEXT
• Augsburg hosts Saint Benedict in an MIAC doubleheader on Saturday (4/6) at 1 p.m. at Edor Nelson Field.