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| Maggie Digman breaks the school HR record |
UW-Platteville broke out of its softball funk by breaking out the long ball.
The Pioneers hit six home runs, including a record-tying five in the second game, to beat Edgewood College 7-5 and 12-4 Tuesday in their final home games.
Maggie Digman broke the school single-season home run with her ninth in the opener, then added two more in the second game. Tera Burr hit two in the second contest, while Nikki Hansen became the first player in the UWP Softball Complex history to clear the second fence when she homered in the second game.
"It was contagious," said Pioneer Coach Heather Townsend, whose team snapped an 11-game losing streak in the opener. "As soon as one home one went out, the rest just snowballed."
Digman's three-run home run brought the Pioneers within 5-4 in the opener. After UWP tied the score at 5-5, Hansen belted a two-run double in the fourth. Maggie Medlicott shut the Eagles out over the final four innings for the complete-game win.
Coming into this season, Kim Gleason (2000) and Wendi Siedschlag (2004) held the school record with eight home runs. Digman upped the mark to 11 in the second game, while Hansen reached nine and Burr eight. The Pioneers have hit 37 HRs as a team, 17 more than the previous school record.
"It just comes down to having confidence at the plate and making good contact with the ball," Townsend said. "It's fundamentals and good attitudes."
The Eagles' Colleen Joyce hit two-run doubles in Edgewood's first and fifth innings for a 4-2 lead. The Pioneers responded with a nine-run fifth. Burr smashed her second round-tripper of the game to open the inning, while Digman and Hansen each hit three-run bombs. Hansen's cleared the 210-foot fast-pitch fence as well as the slow-pitch fence, the first time it's been accomplished in the field's 11-season history.
Digman ended the game due to the eight-run rule with a lead-off home run in the sixth.
The five home runs tied the school record for most in a game, matching an effort against UW-Oshkosh in 2001.
The Pioneers improved to 10-26 with the sweep, while the Eagles fell to 20-16.
UWP will take that momentum to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, as the Pioneers face UW-Stout in the playin game Friday at 9 a.m. in Eau Claire. The winner will face top-seeded UW-Oshkosh at 1 p.m. in the double-elimination portion of the tournament, while the loser of the first game is done.
"We're back," Townsend said. "We're ready to go."