IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- A tough series ended with a gutty performance by the Ellsworth CC softball team on Saturday.  The Panthers had dropped 3 lopsided games to Iowa Lakes, and then saw a 5-4 lead disappear in the top of the 7th inning in the final contest on Saturday.  Ellsworth, however, rallied with 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th to get a walk-off victory by a score of 7-6.

ECC put together its best offensive game of the spring with a season-high 15 hits, 3 of them by Maddy Harding and 2 each by Katie DeMaio, Madeline Myer, Kierstyn Sutton, Gracie Pierce and Miranda McClellan.  Pierce had 3 RBIs and Lauren Brennan, Myer and Sutton 1 apiece.  Harding scored twice.  Taryn Cory got the start in the circle and went 3 innings.  Brennan picked up her 1st victory of the season with 4 innings of relief in which she gave up only 2 runs, both unearned, and didn't walk a batter. 

The ECC win came after the Panthers' pitching was unable to control the Iowa Lakes offense in the first 3 games.  The Lakers swept Friday's games, 11-1 and 17-2, and blasted ECC, 14-1, in game one the next day.

Ellsworth had only 3 hits in the series opener, one of them a double by Harding that knocked in DeMaio with the lone run.  DeMaio contributed the other 2 Panthers' hits.  Saige Keller and Jocelyn Hartley combined to do the pitching.

Iowa Lakes' big inning in the second game was an 8-run 3rd.  Brennan stroked a single and double and she and DeMaio knocked in the runs.  Harding and Myer scored for ECC.  Brennan, Hartley and Lili Ruiz did the work in the circle.

Singles from DeMaio and Pierce were the lone safeties in game 3.  Keller and Ruiz were the pitching duo in the 5-inning contest.

The Panthers will play a doubleheader at Southwestern CC on Tuesday.