IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- The Ellsworth softball team took advantage of playing at home for the first time this spring by winning 2-of-3 games against Dakota County Technical College. The Panthers claimed a 6-4 victory Saturday before dividing a pair of games Sunday, winning 8-1 before losing 5-3.
Emma Gordon's home run snapped a 4-4 deadlock in the Saturday contest and the Panthers added an insurance run on a Lauren Brennan double that plated Madeline Myer. ECC scored 2 runs in both the 2nd and 3rd innings before DCTC tied the score with a 4-run 4th. Ellsworth amassed 13 hits including the Gordon roundtripper and doubles by Myer, Katie DeMaio and Taryn Cory. Myer had 3 hits and Maddy Harding, Gordon, Brennan and Cory had 2 apiece. Myer scored twice and Harding knocked in 2 runs. Saige Keller started in the circle and allowed 4 hits and 3 earned runs in 4 innings while striking out 7. Brennan followed with 3 hitless innings and earned the save.
In Sunday's opening game, ECC tallied single runs in the 3rd and 5th innings, then erupted for 6 in the bottom of the 6th. Harding stroked 2 singles and a triple and had 2 RBIs, Gracie Pierce had a single and a double, a run, and 2 RBIs, and Kierstyn Sutton was 2-for-2 with a triple, 3 runs scored and one driven in. Keller threw an outstanding game, going the distance while giving up 5 hits and 1 earned run with a walk and 9 Ks.
The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 advantage after the first inning in the nightcap. DCTC countered with 2-run innings in the 2nd and 5th. ECC climbed to within a run with a single score in the bottom of the 6th before Dakota County got their final run in the 7th. Myer doubled twice, scored twice and went 3-for-3, Harding had a single and triple and Pierce added a single and double. The RBIs were by Myer, Brennan and Cory. Brennan got the start and permitted 4 runs, only 1 of them earned, in 5 innings. Keller went the last 2 innings.
ECC will host Indian Hills for a pair of games on Thursday and will play Iowa Lakes at home in twinbills Friday and Saturday.