Courtesy of Adam Hussman/MLC SID

STORM LAKE, Iowa — The Martin Luther College softball team traveled to Iowa for a nonconference doubleheader on Monday and battled hard despite falling to Buena Vista 9-1 and 13-3.

GAME 1

Buena Vista 9, MLC 1

(5 innings)

Buena Vista took a 3-0 advantage entering the second inning, but the Knights got some offense going as senior Hannah Ott manufactured a run with a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing in Chloe Koschnitzke.

With the score 3-1, the Beavers responded with two runs in the third and three more in the fourth to take an 8-1 lead on the way to their game one victory over the Knights.

For MLC, Chloe Berg and Ott recorded a double, while Rachel McCaughna stole a base.

GAME 2

Buena Vista 13, MLC 3

Buena Vista began the second contest of the doubleheader with a 9-run bottom of the first off of three hits and errors from the MLC field.

However, MLC had some positive momentum in the top of the second after tying a season-high in runs scored in an inning (3). The Knights strung together five hits in the frame as Kierah Schultz recorded her first career RBI on a single, while McCaughna followed her at-bat with an RBI single of her own. Jess Horn finished off the top of the second with an RBI groundout.

After the second, the Beavers didn’t allow for another big inning from MLC and tacked on five additional runs to take the doubleheader sweep.

MLC continues its season this weekend with a three-game conference series at Minnesota Morris. The series begins with a single game at 6 p.m. on Saturday.