LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- April 3, 2017 -- Chadron State College softball went on the road against a tough opponent in Colorado Christian University, coming home with a 3-1 victory after a pair of wins on Monday. In the final two games of the series, pushed back due to weather, CSC prevailed 8-6 and 5-2.

CCU seized a 6-4 lead through three innings in the first game of the doubleheader, answering the bell three times when Chadron State tried to gain momentum. Home runs by Taylor Bauer and Kayla Michel, and an RBI single by Lindsey Karlin helped the Eagles get their four runs, but the Cougars pounded out eight hits to end the bottom of each column on top.

CSC pitcher Jessica Jarecki then settled in and allowed only one more hit over the next two and one-third innings.

It took the Eagles until the fifth to tie again. Michel hit her second home run of the game, a two-run shot to center field, and the game was tied 6-6.

With Dallas Magnusson entering to pitch in the sixth, the Eagles shut out their opponent for the final four frames, and the seventh inning saw Aspen Eubanks plate the winning run, taking advantage of an error which put Zoe Humphries in scoring posiiton. Pinch-runner Ellie Owens would score on another error to make it 8-6.

Kinsley Mason carried a shutout through five innings of game two, before giving up the Cougars' only two runs of the game on a homer by CCU's Stephanie Day. Meanwhile, CSC needed only four hits to put five runs across, getting 11 free bases from walks, hit batters, and wild pitches. 

Eubanks slapped out a double for the first hit by Chadron State, getting an extra base on a double which brought in pinch-runner Kendyl Moody in the second inning. An Allie Mason sac fly scored Eubanks and gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead.

Likewise, senior Courtney Lecher made the most of hit number two, doubling to score Morgan Wilhelm in the fifth.

Then in the seventh, Lecher singled and Karlin walked, setting up Michel to crack a double for her fifth and sixth RBI of the weekend and give Magnusson some breathing room in the circle. The stingy reliever closed out the game 5-2 for her league-leading fifth save of the season.

No reliever could have asked for a better weekend than Magnusson had, going 2-0 with zero earned runs allowed, after earning the decisions in game two Sunday and the early game on Monday. She pitched a total of six and two-thirds innings, striking out three and walking none. She allowed only three hits in 23 opponent at-bats and earned the save.

Eubanks was 8-of-13 in the four games for a .615 batting average, earning five RBI on two doubles.

Michel, with her two homers in game three and two-RBI double in game four, gave the Eagles a team-high six RBI for the weekend.

Karlin, who was credited with her first and second stolen bases of the year in the first inning of game one, batted .364 and went on to score four runs. She recorded three walks as well.

The Eagles are back at home with a chance at upending the second-ranked team in the RMAC standings, MSU Denver, on Saturday and Sunday.