DE PERE, Wis. - The Ripon softball team split a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon, defeating St. Norbert 3-1 in game one, before losing the nightcap, 9-1 in six innings.

The first game saw the two teams combine to leave 19 runners on base. Ripon (4-15, 1-3 MWC) recorded 12 hits in the game, but had just three runs to show for it. Lucky for them, Ashley Gnacinski dominated in the circle, allowing one run on seven hits in seven innings of work, while striking out three batters and earning her fourth win of the season.

The game's first run came in the top of the second when Ashley Parkkonen gave Ripon a 1-0 lead when she scored on a St. Norbert fielding error. The Red Hawks doubled that lead the following inning when Gnacinski helped her own cause with an RBI single that scored Desiree Velazquez.

St. Norbert (6-12, 1-1 MWC) cut the lead in half with an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth, but Ripon got that run back in the seventh on a run-scoring groundout.

Four Ripon players registered a multi-hit game, as Gnacinski, Korrine Peterson, Meg Krautsch, and Tene Robinson each collected two hits.

The second game started out much like the first, as Ripon scored the game's first run on a Gnacinski single in the top of the first. It didn't have the same finish however, as St. Norbert scored the next nine runs to earn the six-inning victory. The Green Knights' first lead came via a two-run first, followed by two more in the third, three in the fifth, and two in the sixth.

Ripon finished the second game with five hits, with two apiece coming from Gnacinski and Krautsch. Gnacisnki (4-6) made her second start in as many games in the circle, allowing three earned runs on four hits and striking out one in three innings of work.

The Red Hawks will now get ready for this weekend's Midwest Conference Classic in Janesville, Wis., where they will play a game against all six teams in the MWC South Division. That tournament will begin on Friday when Ripon will face Knox and Cornell at 1 and 3 p.m., respectively.
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