Niagara shortstop Makenzie Neuens receives a throw at second base during a game against Coleman on Friday, May 10, 2019, in Niagara, Wis. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News)

NIAGARA, Wis. – A hitting frenzy in the fifth inning spurred Coleman to an M&O Conference doubleheader sweep over Niagara on Friday.

Coleman strung together five hits for a six-run fifth inning in the first game en route to a 7-4 win. Coleman also won the nightcap 11-6.

Niagara (9-11) attempted a comeback with four runs in the final two frames, but fell short.

The fifth was Coleman’s third time through the lineup. Up to that point, Niagara pitcher Noelle Champagne had been cruising. She had four strikeouts with no walks. Coleman had four hits and no walks up to that point and hadn’t scored.

“I was thinking of pulling Noelle the third time through, but she was pitching so well,” Niagara head coach Duane Blagec said. “They weren’t making really good contact on her so I thought I’d leave her in there. Third time through, they put five hits together. One big inning and other than that we competed with them. We just gave up the big one.”

Niagara responded with two runs in the sixth and seventh. The Badgers had the bases loaded in the seventh but a flyout to right field ended the game.

Coleman didn’t strike out after the fourth, leaving Champagne with four strikeouts and two walks and 12 hits surrendered.

“We’ve had trouble recently trying to string hits together,” Coleman head coach Jean Levash said. “We’ve been leaving people on base. What’s nice about tonight is we were able to string some hits together and score six.”

Isabella Wells, Haley Allred, Jadah McCarthy, Destany Bourassa, Jayden Payette and Champagne had hits for Niagara.

“All in all I think our hitting is getting better,” Blagec said. “We’ve been working really hard on it. We’re almost neglecting everything else. Just working on hitting until we can start hitting the ball. It’s working. Tournament time is coming, so it better get here soon.”

Coleman scored three runs in the second and third innings of the nightcap and rolled to an 11-6 win. Niagara pitched Champagne to start, with Blagec using the extra innings getting her to work on her changeup.

Payette, Makenzie Neuens and Isabella Wells – who hadn’t pitched since sixth grade – also pitched for the Badgers. They gave up 11 runs on 10 hits with nine walks and four strikeouts.

Niagara plays at Three Lakes/Phelps on Monday.

Game 1

Coleman 000 060 1 – 7 12 1

Niagara 000 002 2 – 4 10 1

Game 2

Coleman 033 221 0 – 11 10 0

Niagara 011 210 1 – 6 11 3