ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – For the first time since 2014, the College of Saint Benedict softball team is headed to the MIAC Tournament.
CSB split a doubleheader with St. Kate's Saturday afternoon – winning Game 1 2-1 and falling 9-4 in Game 2 – to secure a berth in the league's four-team tournament, which runs May 5-7.
After Saturday's games, CSB was fourth in the league with a 16-6 record. St. Thomas was in first at 18-4, Hamline second (16-4) and the Wildcats are third at 15-5. The Pipers and Wildcats play Sunday afternoon to help finalize seeding for the tournament.
The last time CSB made the playoffs, it finished 15-7 in the MIAC and took third in the league. That year, Saint Benedict went 0-2 in the postseason tournament after falling to Gustavus and Bethel.
In the first game of the day,
Emilie Antony hit a solo home run in the first inning to put CSB (27-11 overall) up 1-0. St. Kate's scored an unearned run in the second inning to tie the game, but
Kate Deming doubled and scored on an RBI single by
Sara Wennerstrand in the bottom of the third. That run proved to be all the scoring CSB would need as the Wildcats got just two runners on base in the final four innings.
Antony and Wennerstrand each had an RBI for CSB, and Deming and
Alex Smith both had doubles. Saint Benedict had four hits to St. Kate's three.
Cassie Meyer threw all seven innings and gave up one unearned run on three hits to earn the win.
In the second game it was the Wildcats who got on the board with a solo homer in the second inning, and they added a second run on a sac fly in the third inning to go up 2-0. CSB made it 2-1 in the fifth on an RBI double by
Megan Toninato, but St. Kate's added two runs in the sixth and five more in the sixth thanks to four hits and one CSB error. CSB made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Deming singled, Toninato doubled and Antony hit a three-run homer to make it 9-4, but that's where the threat ended.
Deming and Toninato each had two hits for CSB, which had nine total hits, and Antony had three RBIs. Meyer took the loss after giving up two runs on four hits in three innings.
Jocelyn Metz threw three innings and gave up two runs on five hits, and
Alex Smith gave up five runs in the final inning.
Saturday's doubleheader wraps up the regular season for CSB as Sunday's nonconference doubleheader against St. Scholastica, scheduled to be played in Duluth, has been canceled. Seeding, schedule and host-site information for the MIAC Tournament will be released after all MIAC regular-season games are complete.
