By: By Jeff Schmidt - SMSU

Box Score
 
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The No. 10 seed Southwest Minnesota State softball team took down No. 7 seed Sioux Falls, 5-4 in the first round of the NSIC Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Bowden Field.
 
SMSU will advance to the second round and face No. 1 seed Minnesota State at 4 p.m., at Sherman Park.
 
Alex O'Connor started the opening game and pitched six innings before being relieved in the bottom of the seventh by Athena Golling. Golling pitched 2/3 of the final inning, before O'Connor returned to record the final out. O'Connor tallied nine hits and four runs (three earned), while striking out seven. Neither pitcher recorded a walk.
 
USF recorded 11 hits and four RBIs, but left seven runners on base. SMSU tallied seven hits and four RBIs, while drawing four walks and left four runners stranded.
 
A trio of Mustangs recorded multiple hits in the win, led by Victoria Brooks who went 2 for 2 with two runs scored and an RBI on a home run. Taylor Chavez and Karmann Carroll also tallied two hits, while Carroll notched three RBIs and a double.
 
Sioux Falls jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first two frames before Southwest Minnesota State got on the board. SMSU put a run across after Jordyn Goldschmidt scored on a throwing error by the Cougars in the third.
 
SMSU scored again in the fourth after Carroll smashed a double to center field to clear the loaded bases and to give the Mustangs a 4-3 lead. Brooks added a much-needed insurance run in the sixth with her first home run of the season.
 
USF led off the bottom of the final inning with a home run to cut the Mustang lead to one. The Cougars put runners on the corners with two out, but O'Connor punched out the final batter to secure the 5-4 vicotry.
 
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