WAVERLY, Iowa - The No. 15-ranked Wartburg College softball team split its Friday doubleheader versus Coe College, winning game one 4-2 prior to a 9-8 game two victory for the Kohawks.

With the split, Wartburg and Coe's records each move to 17-6 within the American Rivers Conference, setting up the league title game tomorrow at 1 p.m. from Lynes Field. The winner will also earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Voted on by conference coaches, the A-R-C automatic bid will be awarded to the regular season conference champion, out of the 24-game conference schedule adopted for this season only.

Through two games, Lauren Frerichs and Olivia Brecht each tallied four hits while Leah Campos and Tarah Wehde both had four runs batted in.

Wartburg 4, Coe 2
Down 2-0 after five innings, the Knights rallied a put together a four-run sixth inning while starting pitcher Ashley Nelson shut the door in the seventh for a complete game performance.
 
Coe's Ellie Thurow retired the Knights' first two batters in the sixth prior to Wartburg's rally.
 
Kaci Sherwood was hit by a pitch to reach and was pinch ran by Reegan Deputy. Campos followed with a triple to score Deputy for the Knights' first run of the game. Up next, Wehde homered over the left field fence to grant the home team a 3-2 lead with the eventual game-winning RBI.
 
Sydney Fellows also homered in the sixth, the first of her career, to put Wartburg up 4-2.
 
The Kohawks put pressure on the Knights' defense in the seventh, putting runners into scoring position but Nelson and the Knights closed out Coe with a groundout to Sydney Illg for the final out.
 
Nelson allowed two earned runs with four strikeouts, earning the win to improve her record to 10-1.
 
Coe 9, Wartburg 8
The Knights jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after two innings, scoring four in the first off of two fielder's choice runs batted in along with a two-run double from Wehde. The offense continued in the second inning with a two-run triple from Campos to extend Wartburg's lead to 6-0.
 
Coe got on the board in the third with a bloop single that scored one run, its first hit of the game to trim Wartburg's lead to 6-1. During the next at bat, Skyler Stookey hit a two-run homer to cut the Knights' lead in half at 6-3.

The Knights answered in the bottom half of the third with a Frerichs RBI groundout, scoring Fellows who knocked a double down the left field line. In the fourth, Wartburg added another on a passed ball to increase its lead to 8-3.

Coe responded however with six unanswered runs to claim the 9-8 victory and salvage a doubleheader split. The Kohawks scored four in the fifth and two in the sixth. 

In the fifth, Coe's Stookey hit her second round-tripper of the game, a grand slam to trim Wartburg's lead to 8-7. The Kohawks scored two runs off three hits in the sixth to gain the 9-8 lead.

Maddie Rog started in the pitcher's circle and went 4.1 innings before she was relieved by Wehde, who took the loss.
 

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