DECORAH – First-year coach
Robin Brand's Cornell softball team reached the 20-win mark Saturday with a 6-5 Game 1 victory over Luther at Betty A. Hoff Field.
The Rams saw their five-game winning streak snapped in the second game, 12-4, in six innings.
Cornell (20-12) secured its first 20-win season since 2019, when the Rams finished 20-16. The Rams still have seven games left in the regular season.
Brooke Furman and
Peyton Souhrada accounted for three hits apiece in the opener, and
Lauren Summers (6-3) closed it out in the pitching circle with 4.1 effective innings of relief.
Linnea Drever doubled home Furman for a key insurance run in the top of the seventh that pushed the Rams ahead 6-4. The Norse (19-13) cut the margin to 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh before Summers induced a game-ending flyout to right field with one runner on.
Summers surrendered four hits and only one run in her 21st appearance this spring.
Elise Oleson slugged her team-leading 14th double of the season, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Drever added two hits and two RBIs.
Corrin Kennedy went 2-for-4 with three runs scored.
Game 2 got away from the Rams in the bottom of the fifth when Luther struck for six runs to lead 10-3. The Norse outhit Cornell, 15-7.
Kennedy recorded her 15th multi-hit game of the spring with a pair of singles. Oleson also had two hits.
Souhrada extended her hitting streak to nine games and drove in one run.
Coming up – Cornell (7-5 MWC) visits Knox (8-24 overall, 2-8 MWC) for a 1 p.m. doubleheader Sunday in Galesburg, Ill.
