The College of Saint Benedict softball team ran into a hot hitting Bethel team Friday afternoon at CSB Field.  The Royals pounded out 32 hits including six homeruns en route to a 5-1, 14-4 sweep of the Blazers.  In both games, Bethel jumped out to an early lead and their impressive performance at the plate was too much for CSB to overcome.

In Game 1, the Royals scored two runs in both the first and second innings to take a 4-0 lead.  In the top of the first inning, Kelly Berg hit her first of four homeruns on the day to get the Bethel offense going.  CSB struggled to find any rhythm at the plate and were only able to tally four hits through the first five innings.  After Bethel added another run in the top of the sixth inning to push their lead to 5-0, senior Jillian Rigg (Billings, MT, Central Catholic) blasted a solo homerun to score the Blazers only run in the game.

Rigg led the CSB offense by going 2-for-3 with a homerun, while Devin Bowlin (Winona, MN, Winona Cotter) went 2-for-3 at the plate as well.

In Game 2, Bethel used a five-run third inning and a four-run fouth inning to get ahead before the Blazer offense got going.  In the bottom of the fourth inning, Bowlin and sophomore Alyssa Kubesh (Buffalo Lake, MN, Buffalo Lake-Hector) hit back-to-back homeruns to put the Blazers on the board, but CSB was still unable to overcome Bethel's hot hitting as they collected 21 hits in Game 2 alone.

Bowlin led the CSB offense in Game 2 by going 3-for-3 with three RBIs.  Senior Genna Strauss (Red Wing, MN, Red Wing) added a 2-for-3 performance at the plate with two runs scored in the losing effort.

CSB will be back in action Saturday, April 25 when they host Concordia College in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score