Wed.  Softball Fremont, Neb.  Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament

Game One…

Jamestown  3  Northwestern (IA) College 2

Box Score

FREMONT, Neb.  (UJ)  —The University of Jamestown softball team won twice on Wednesday to advance to the Midland bracket championship on Thursday, defeating Northwestern (Iowa) College 3-2 and Midland University 1-0.

In Wednesday’s first game, the Raiders took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Jordyn Kramer doubled, and Madysn Grotewold bunted. Kat Miska (JR/Pequot Lakes, Minn.) fielded the ball but her throw was off-line, allowing Kramer to score and Grotewold to advance to second. Miska got out of the inning by striking out Payton Schwiesow.

UJ rallied in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Mariah Wick (JR/Jamestown, N.D.) reached on a one-out single and stole second base. Kassi Ward (JR/Olympia, Wash.) walked to put runners on first and second, and Jenna Remenar (FR/Vancouver, Wash.) followed with a double to left field, scoring Wick and moving Ward to third. Sydney Prussia (JR/Detroit Lakes, Minn.) singled to center with two outs to score Ward and Remenar.

Northwestern got one run back in the top of the sixth on Emily Strasser’s double, which made it 3-2.

Miska (17-2) struck out 12 while going the distance in the circle. She gave up two runs, just one of them earned, on four hits, and walked two.

Prussia and Wick each had two hits, and Wick stole a pair of bases.

Katie Merchant (SO/South Haven, Minn.) turned in perhaps her best outing as a Jimmie in Wednesday’s second game, holding Midland to a first-inning double over six shutout innings as Jamestown defeated the No. 25 Warriors 1-0.

Merchant (13-7) threw only 62 pitches in six innings, and faced just two batters over the minimum. She struck out four of the five final batters she faced before turning the game over to Kat Miska in the seventh. Miska set down the Warriors in order for her first save of the season.

Midland starter Aliyah Rincon (19-3) kept the Jimmies off the board until the top of the sixth. Jenna Remenar reached on an error, and Lauren Diemert (FR/West Fargo, N.D.) came on to run. Santina Zito (SO/Boise, Idaho) put down a sacrifice bunt to move Diemert into scoring position. Sydney Prussia delivered a single to right-center, scoring Diemert. Gracie Fisher (FR/Bemidji, Minn.) followed with a single to put Jimmie runners at first and second with one out, but Rincon retired the next two UJ batters to get out of the inning.

Fisher was 2-for-3 for Jamestown, which also got hits from Zito and Mariah Wick.

The Jimmies’ opponent for Thursday’s 2 p.m. game will not be determined until Thursday. Updated schedules will be posted on jimmiepride.com.