Emily Tucker

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lady Miners fought back from a four-run deficit with six outs to go to keep their season alive, but saw it end about 90 minutes later when Grand Valley State’s Lisa Pruess homered in the 13th inning to give the Lakers a 5-4 victory over UMR in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional at Lewis University.

The loss closed the Lady Miners’ first appearance at the regional tournament and their season with a final record of 29-18. UMR, however, did not go down without a fight.

Grand Valley State jumped out to a 3-0 by the time the second inning ended on three solo home runs off UMR starter Jen O’Hara. Kristin Moleski and Elizabeth Smith hit back-to-back homers in the first with two outs, then Pruess led off the second with a homer.

The Lakers extended their lead in the fifth and knocked O’Hara out of the game when Moleksi hit a line drive off the pitcher’s hand to drive in Karen Walters. Ashley Wallingford took over in the circle and induced a double play grounder off the bat of Smith to get out of the inning.

GVSU starter Lori Andjelich carried a no-hitter into the fifth before Lauren Feltmann broke it up with a one-out single. The Lady Miners then proceeded to break up the shutout in the sixth.

Following Krista Porterfield’s leadoff single, Kandi Wieberg belted a two-run homer to left to cut the lead in half. With one out, Kelsey Musselman singled up the middle and then scored moments later when Emily Tucker hit a home run to center to draw the Lady Miners even.

Wallingford pitched around hits or walks in the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th innings to give UMR a chance to win it. The Lady Miners had a couple of opportunities to end the game in the meantime.

Porterfield reached base in the 10th when shortstop Nichole Woityra tripped and fell while backpedaling to field her pop fly, but got thrown out on a close play at second in an effort to get into scoring position.

An inning later, Ashley Winter singled with one out and stole second, but Tucker lined out to third to end the inning.

After Wallingford retired the first two hitters in the 13th, Pruess hit a pitch over the fence in left to put the Lakers back in front.

UMR had one last chance when Winter singled with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, but Andjelich got Musselman to pop up in front of the plate for the final out.

The Lady Miners finished the game with six hits with Winter getting two of them.