Augustana came back and won game two of Wednesday’s afternoon doubleheader against Millikin. They won 3-2 guided by first-year pitcher, Cecelia Peine. They also game-winning inning sacrifice fly by sophomore, Amanda Ray.
Augustana lost game one by a score of 13-3. The Vikings fell behind after giving up eight runs in the top of the first inning, and they were not able to climb the steep hill back. The game ended in five innings with a Millikin victory by mercy rule.
Game two turned out differently for the Vikings.
“Going into game two, we had the attitude of just forget about the first one. It’s over, and we have another chance in game two,” said sophomore short stop, Alyssa Klahn.
The Vikings jumped out to an early lead after an RBI ground out off the bat of freshman, Molly Wren. Wren’s ground ball scored sophomore, Dina Falk, who started the inning off with a base hit. The bats were silent after that until the fifth inning when junior, Clare Kramer, hit deep to left field for a solo homerun. This was her first for the 2018 season.
Augustana held onto the lead until the bottom of the sixth. Millikin struck back with a two run homerun to tie the game going into the top of the seventh.
Back to back singles to kick of the seventh put the Vikings on first and third with no one out. This is when Ray delivered her sacrifice fly for the game winning run.
This doubleheader brought Augustana’s record to 16-8 overall on the season along with 3-3 in the CCIW.  Augie has fourteen games left during the season, and they will attempt to move up to the top four in the CCIW to make the conference tournament in May.
To be successful in the long run, injuries need to give the Augustana softball team a break and the team needs to hit consistantly.
“We have had some girls get injured early on in the year, and we have a lot of games coming up in the next two weeks, so getting healthy combined with consistent hitting will be essential for putting together a run at the end of the season,” said sophomore first baseman, Brittany Pospishil.
The Vikings are currently in fifth place in the CCIW.