Overcoming two late-inning deficits Wednesday, the Wisconsin softball team swept North Dakota in a doubleheader at Goodman Diamond.

The first game took an extra inning to decide after the Badgers tied the game in the sixth inning.

With Whitney Massey at third and Kendall Grimm at the plate with one out, Grimm slapped a ball to the shortstop.

It was a playable ball that would have held the runner and put out Grimm, but the ball took a short hop and bounced past the North Dakota shortstop and trickled into left field, allowing the walk off run to be scored.

That would be just the first come-from-behind win of the day.

The second game was very close until the Badgers blew it open in the sixth. With two runners on and one out, Rasmussen came to the plate. She had ripped a ball to right field earlier in the game but was thrown out trying to stretch it from a double to a triple.

This time, there would be no need to work for extra bases as she hit a line drive home run to left field. It was the first career home run for Rasmussen, a Madison native, and her team loved the hit as much as she did.

“That was awesome,” Senior Katie Soderberg said. “I’m so proud of her. Madison girl, home field, home run, big moment. Couldn’t be more happy for her.”

Rasmussen another key play for the team, though this one was on defense.

In the fifth inning, North Dakota had runners on second and third. Cami Bennett hit a slow bouncer to Whitney Massey, who quickly threw home for a play at the plate.

Although the runner seemed to have beaten the throw, Rasmussen did an excellent job of blocking the plate, and the runner was tagged out. UND associate head coach, Randy Ward, was then ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire.

Senior Katie Soderberg came up big as well, scoring two runs in each game, continuing her hot streak as the leadoff hitter for the Badgers. Soderberg said she has loved her time at the top of the line up and is just enjoying her last few games with the team.

“You know, it’s my home turf, and I’m a senior; I’m just going out there and having fun now,” she said. “It’s awesome. I’m taking every moment in, and you just leave it on the field.”

Soderberg legged out two triples in the second game, which turned into the Badgers’ first and last runs of the day.

The senior’s last run capped a four-run sixth inning that sealed the game for the Badgers, though freshman pitcher Meghan McIntosh did have to work herself out of a slight jam in the seventh.

McIntosh threw the ball the best she has all year, allowing two earned runs on seven hits, while walking two and striking out five. She did so against a powerful North Dakota offense that includes Casie Hanson, who has an on-base percentage of .507.

“I didn’t know that,” McIntosh said of the strength of the opposing hitters. “I just go after them.”

“I went to my fastball instead of my curve ball because it wasn’t really moving, so that was an adjustment I made.”

Wisconsin’s senior starter, Letty Olivarez, went eight strong innings in game one, allowing only three runs and eight hits. Not surprisingly, strong pitching and timely hitting were the keys to the Badger wins.

“They were definitely on, and I always appreciate when our pitchers come out with their ‘A’ game,” Soderberg said.

The team had only one clean inning in the second game, sending 29 batters to the plate in only six innings, so players were really hitting behind one another.

“Instead of getting one hit and then not getting any hits behind them, we got a whole bunch of hits, and we scored the runners,” Grimm said.

In the end, the team was proud of their scrappy and determined play today.

“You can always win big games with big numbers,” Grimm said. “But when you come back from a game when we’re down by one run, and we come back and we win that shows that we can come through in any game against any team so we just have to fight.”