WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Augustana softball team split Saturday with a win over Northeastern State and a loss to Central Missouri. The games are part of the UCM pod of the Missouri Western Tournament. The UCM pod is taking place in Warrensburg, Missouri.
 
Augustana's record is now 14-5 on the year. Northeastern State is 12-12 while UCM is 8-15.
 
Augustana received home runs from the bats of Abby Lien, Kennedy Buckman, Mary Pardo and Delaney Young as part of the day.
 
Game One: No. 10 Augustana 10, Northeastern State 1
The Vikings plated two runs in the second inning, added four in the third and made it a run-rule win in the sixth with four more runs.
 
In the second, Augustana scored its two runs courtesy of RiverHawk errors. To make it 5-0, Delaney Young led off the bottom of the third with a double. Torri Chute followed with a single in the infield, setting up Abby Lien. The senior slugger sent a towering home run over the center-field fence for her fifth home run of the season.
 
To push the sixth run across the plate, Mary Pardo singled in Gracey Brink.
 
After Northeastern State added a run in the top of the fifth, the Vikings plated four more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Kennedy Buckman homered into right-center field, scoring Becca Koupal who was pinch-running for Lien.
 
The game-ending hit came off the bat of Nicole Bellis. She doubled into right field, scoring Amanda Dickmeyer and Gracey Brink to end the game at 10-1.
 
Augustana tallied 14 hits on the day with Brink going 3-for-4. Young, Chute and Dickmeyer all totaled two hits.
 
Ashley Mickschl earned the win in the circle, her fifth of the year while tossing four innings and striking out four. Hailey Houston came on in relief, tossing the final two innings with two strikeouts and giving up no hits. In all, the Vikings gave up just two hits in the game.  
 
Game Two: Central Missouri 9, Augustana 7
It was a game of twists and turns as Augustana took leads in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings but fell in nine to the home squad.
 
Central Missouri captured a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. In the third, Augustana captured a 3-1 lead thanks to a Liz Dierks single scoring Abbie Lund and a Delaney Young home run.
 
The Jennies pulled within a run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly for a 3-2 score.
 
Augustana stretched its lead to 4-2 in the fifth inning on an RBI groundout from Young, scoring Mary Pardo.
 
However, the lead was quickly moved to a 4-4 score in the bottom of the fifth as UCM scratched two runs across the plate.
 
The back-and-forth affair really kicked off in the sixth inning as Amanda Dickmeyer hit a sharp single to the shortstop which allowed Becca Koupal to score. In the top of the seventh, Mary Pardo skied a home run to left-center field for a 6-4 lead.
 
However, the home team battled back on its final turn through the batting order to knot things up at six and force the extra frames.
 
Utilizing what is known as the international tie-break rule, a runner was placed on second base to begin the eighth inning which was Torri Chute for AU. She scored on a Dickmeyer groundout to give AU a 7-6 lead.
 
The Jennies again knotted the game, much the same way as Augustana. They scored their runner placed on second base thanks to a groundout as well.
 
After the AU offense was unable to score in the top of the ninth, the Jennies hit a walk-off double to win the game 9-7.
 
The Vikings recorded 12 hits in the game with three coming from Gracey Brink. Another two came from Pardo and Dickmeyer each.
 
Up Next
Sunday will look nearly identical to Saturday as Augustana again faces Northeastern State and Central Missouri. First pitch with NSU is slated for 2 p.m. while the contest with UCM will have a 4 p.m. start.
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