Despite losing their starting shortstop and left fielder in the first three innings of the day, the Central College softball team knocked off UT-Dallas 7-3 and MacMurray (IL) 15-4 in five innings in a pair of games heard live yesterday from Tucson, Arizona on the KRLS3 stream at www.kniakrls.com.

The Dutch lost sophomore shortstop Daria Parchert to a concussion and junior left fielder Shaye Witte to a leg injury, but held off a late-inning charge to beat the Comets before run-ruling the Highlanders.  Coach George Wares says that it was nice to see their replacements step up.

“I thought Lauren Birt came in, and it wasn’t like the ball wasn’t hit to her.  She made some significant plays, and then there was the offense too. Birt had a huge hit in the first game.  It’s something long term we don’t want to have happen, but we’re going to be without Daria for sure on Wednesday and probably Shaye, but we’re hoping to have them back for the conference opener.  We just need to find a way to win without them.”

On the day, Sara Tallman had five hits, three runs and three RBI.  Birt had the first three hits of her collegiate career and Kaitlyn Andresen continued to be the team’s hottest hitter with three more hits.

The Dutch are now 7-3 on the season and will play a pair of games today to close out the Tucson Spring Invitational before returning to Iowa to open league play against Simpson next weekend.