The Northern State women’s softball team played its first official games in the brand new Koehler Hall of Fame Field on Tuesday afternoon.

While the Wolves were swept by Minnesota State Moorhead, they were the big winners of having a new state-of-the-art complex.

“They just did an incredible job from all of the fundraising that they’ve done in the last 5-10 years as well as the Koehler family themselves having the pride to want to do this for softball and for Aberdeen and Northern,” said Wolves coach Ashley Schilling.

Her favorite part of the new facility?

“Definitely the padding along the outfield fence,” Schilling said. “I think it just closes everything in and does a fantastic job of making it feel like a stadium, as well as the extra bonus of it breaking some wind while we’re in here.”

A huge crowd turned out for the opening of the field, despite cool, blustery conditions.

Northern State did not manage its first hit until the bottom of the fourth inning in the first game. The Wolves dropped their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opening twinbill to Moorhead by scores of 5-4 and 16-7.

Northern battled back from a 5-0 deficit in game one thanks to the first home runs at the field coming from Liv Richardson and Alexandria Arndt.

The Wolves trailed 4-0 in nightcap before grabbing a 6-4 lead only to have the Dragons close with a flurry to record the sweep.

“Pitchers and defense, just as a whole, we want to do a better job of shutting them down when we have the opportunity,” Schilling said. “Plays at bases, making sure that we’re doing a good job of getting those outs or pop ups when the pitchers give them to us, and just things like that. Just closing the door, making sure we’re not giving them any kind of glimpse. Moving forward, that’s going to be our focus.”

To see more details on the game, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/news/2022/3/29/northern-state-softball-drops-two-in-nsic-opener.aspx