At The Plate: The University of Mary Softball team returns to Bismarck for a week's worth of doubleheaders as they host Minnesota State University Moorhead on Wednesday, April 6, followed by a pair of games against Upper Iowa University on Saturday, April 9, and rounded out with the contests against Winona State University on Sunday, April 10.

For The Record: U-Mary had a rought trip on the road as they managed a 1-5 record between Bemidji State University, the University of Sioux Falls, and Southwest Minnesota State University to put their record at 7-21, 1-8 NSIC on the year so far.  The Dragons also had a difficult time outside of Moorhead, Minn., as they also went 1-5 with the split against the University of Minnesota Duluth and were swept by Augustana University and Wayne State College to put their record at 8-18, 1-9 NSIC. The Peacocks split with Augustana last week before sweeping St. Cloud State University and another split with Minnesota Duluth to improve their record to 23-11, 9-3 NSIC on the season. The Warriors have fallen off from their top ranking in the NFCA poll as they swept Wayne State, split with St. Cloud State, and were swept by Minnesota Duluth and took a tumble in the standings to 24-10, 6-5 NSIC.

In The Past: The Marauders swept MSU Moorhead last year to extend their winning streak to 13 over the past seven years and improved the all-time record to 14-10 in favor of U-Mary. Upper Iowa held the upper hand last year as they swept the pair of contests in Fayette, Iowa, to put the record at 9-9 all-time with U-Mary managing one win in the last five contests. Finally, the Marauders split with Winona State last year, as they did the year prior, to put the all-time record at 4-19 with the Warriors held a streak of 14 wins in 15 games from 2009 to 2014.

Last One Up: U-Mary struggled on the road on both the defensive and offensive sides of the field as they failed to score a run in a pair of contests against Bemidji State. The Marauders lost 3-0 in game one as they were held to three hits and lost 6-0 in game two while managing seven hits. Unfortunately, a change in scenery wasn't enough to build the momentum as the Marauders committed seven errors in a 14-0 loss to Sioux Falls in game one, followed by three errors in a 12-4 loss in game two. U-Mary did end their week on a high note, despite dropping the first game to Southwest Minnesota State at 4-1 with the defense settling down, and finally recorded their first conference win at 2-1 in the second half of the doubleheader against the Mustangs as Brieann Backes scattered seven hits over seven innings while manufacturing runs on a single from Shawnee Zink that scored Kylie Alto in the top of the third, while Colleen Crutchfield scored on Alana Norman's groundball in the seventh.

On Deck: The Marauders will head out on the road next week as they visit Northern State University on April 12, followed by a pair of contests against Concordia University-St. Paul on April 16, and Minnesota State University on April 17.

For more information, check out the full PDF release.

#marauders#