Notables
-The game was delayed for two hours and 53 minutes due to lightening/rain
-Mizera threw 10 scoreless innings before giving a run up in the 11th
-First 11-inning game for the Saints since March 18, 2006 vs. Howard Payne

DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica softball team will have to work its way back in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament after falling Friday afternoon to the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The game started at 2:40 p.m. but no victor was crowned nor was a run scored until over four and a half hours later in the top of the 11th inning, which is when UWS plated the only run of the game to win 1-0.

Mizera and Hanson's Pitching Duel
The game started with each team recording a hit in the first inning. Unfortunately for both teams, there wouldn't be another hit until the eighth inning rolled around. Chrisi Mizera (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East HS), who went a total of 11 innings, only gave up one run on four hits. Starter Macy Hanson of UWS went a total of six innings, only allowing one hit and giving up zero runs. Hanson was out on the mound throwing in the seventh, but wouldn't be given the chance to finish the inning as weather took over.

Lighting Delays Play
A lighting sighting in the bottom of the seventh inning automatically put the game at a 30-minute delay, but the delay would be much, much longer than 30 minutes. Everyone was definitely getting their fair share of the seventh-inning stretch as the rain and lighting didn't stop for over two hours.

By the time Maggie Schley (Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) was able to continue her at bat two hours and 53 minutes had elapsed. UWS wouldn't go back to Hanson, but instead called Sarah Hendrickson to the mound to pitch the bottom of the seventh. Not many thought she would be pitching well into double-digit innings.

11th Inning
Mizera and Hendrickson, the only two pitchers to touch the mound after the rain delay, were in their respective "zones" as neither team could muster back-to-back hits off them. Mizera, after pitching an unbelievable ten-inning shutout, finally cracked.

Sasha Fjeran got things rolling with a single to start the 11th inning and then advanced to second after a SAC-bunt was laid down. Brittany Thomfohrda came up to the plate with two outs and hit a RBI-double to left field to put UWS on the scoreboard.

The Saints threatened in the bottom-half of the inning, thanks in part to two clutch singles from Rendi Johnson (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake HS) and Marjaana Dailey (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS), but were unable to find the gaps in the defense to bring home the tying run as it fell 1-0.

Up Next
The Saints will now square off against the University of Minnesota Morris Saturday at noon. The winner of that game will face UW-Superior right after at 2 p.m. in the championship game. If UWS were to fall in that championship, a winner-take-all game would be necessary on Sunday at noon.