ST. PAUL, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict softball team suffered its first MIAC sweep of the season Sunday afternoon when it dropped a pair of conference games to St. Thomas. The Tommies won the first game 8-4, and shut out CSB 5-0 in the second game in St. Paul, Minn.
With one MIAC doubleheader left on its regular-season schedule, Saint Benedict is now 26-10 overall and 15-5 and has dropped to third in the MIAC. UST took over the conference lead with a 16-4 record, and Hamline is in second at 14-4. Both St. Kate's (12-4) and St. Olaf (12-6) are still in the hunt for a spot in the four-team postseason tournament.
CSB and UST both have one MIAC doubleheader left in the regular season – CSB hosts St. Kate's and UST hosts Bethel. Hamline has to play Augsburg and St. Kate's yet, the Wildcats also take on Gustavus this week and the Oles have yet to play Augsburg and Macalester.
Saint Benedict had 11 hits in the first game against the Tommies, but couldn't string those hits together.
Kate Deming singled and scored on a wild pitch to put CSB up 1-0 after one inning, but the Tommies (31-7 overall) scored twice in the second and third innings to go up 4-1.
Claire Boatman doubled to started the fourth and scored on an RBI double by
Madison Mikolich, and she scored on an RBI single by Deming to make it 4-3, but UST scored once in the bottom of the inning and twice in the fifth to push its lead back to 7-3.
Mikolich doubled again in the bottom of the sixth and scored on an RBI double by Deming, but UST added one more run in the sixth and CSB went down in order in the seventh to end the game.
Mikolich went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI to lead CSB in Game 1. Deming went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
Cassie Meyer threw the first five innings and took the loss after giving up seven runs – five earned – on eight hits. She struck out one batter. Kiela DeVlaemicnk threw the final inning and gave up one run on two hits.
CSB only got one batter past second base in the second game as it had six hits over the course of the game.
Jocelyn Metz scattered the Tommies' 10 hits over six innings, but they scored once in the first on a passed ball to make it 1-0, and once in the third on a wild pitch. UST added one run in the fifth, and CSB looked to get on the board in the sixth when Deming singled and advanced on a UST error, then moved to third on a groundout by
Megan Toninato, but she was held up at third. The Tommies added two more runs in the bottom of the inning to end the scoring.
Deming and
Karlee Pfaff each two hits for CSB, and one of Pfaff's hit was a double.
Jocelyn Metz threw all six innings and took the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) on 10 hits. She struck out one batter.
Saint Benedict is off now until Saturday, April 29, when it hosts St. Kate's. CSB is scheduled to wrap up the regular season Sunday, April 30, with a nonconference doubleheader at St. Scholastica in Duluth.
