Harding falls to Minnesota State’s rally

Minnesota State scored two runs in the sixth and two runs in the seventh to defeat Harding 7-6, win the NCAA Division II Central Super Regional and advance to the NCAA Division II Softball Championships beginning Thursday in Salem, Va.

Minnesota State (59-7) won the opening game of the best-of-three series 1-0 on Thursday. Harding (58-9) responded with a 3-2 victory Friday. The teams began game three Friday, and Harding held a 4-3 after 1½ innings before rains forced the game to be suspended until Sunday.

Harding went ahead 5-3 in the third when Autumn Humes led off with a single and scored on Amanda Berdon’s infield groundout. The Lady Bisons moved ahead 6-3 on pinch hitter Briley Feringa’s RBI single in the fifth.

Minnesota State made it 6-5 in the sixth on Amber Kral’s RBI single and a two-out RBI double by Carly Esselman that scored Ashley Thell.

Thell’s RBI single to center in the seventh scored Alyssa Rickels with the tying run and McKenzie Paap came in from third with the go-ahead run when the throw in from center field got away.

Coley Ries (35-4) allowed a season-high six runs on nine hits but got the victory with her 31st complete game. Ries threw all 376 pitches for Minnesota State in the Central Super Regional.

Minnesota State had 14 hits off Humes (33-3). She yielded 7 runs (5 earned) over 6 1/3 innings. She had six strikeouts to push her single-season school record to 292 in 2017.

Humes and Lawellin had two hits each for Harding, and Berdon and Madi Trump both drove in two runs.