MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Last year,
Ally Hjort threw the first no-hitter of her collegiate career against Augsburg. This year, she gave up a single hit.
Hjort's one-hitter helped the College of Saint Benedict softball team beat Augsburg 10-0 in six innings Sunday in the first game of the MIAC doubleheader. The Auggies came back to win 7-2 in the second game as CSB split its sixth conference doubleheader of the season. CSB is now 18-10 overall and 6-6 in the MIAC.
In the first game of the day, Hjort didn't allow a base runner until the fourth inning when she hit a batter and then another reached on a fielder's choice. Both were stranded, and the Auggies (13-15, 5-7) got their lone hit of the game in the fifth inning.
CSB, on the other hand, had 10 hits in the first game. The team scored all the runs it would need in the second when two runs came in on an error.
Kendra Swanson had a two-run double in the third to make it 4-0, and one run scored on an error and
Emilie Antony had an RBI sac fly in the fourth to put CSB up 6-0. Saint Benedict scored four runs in the sixth thanks to RBI triples from
Kate Deming and
Claire Boatman and another Auggie error to end the game early.
Deming finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and
Madison Mikolich and
Codi Zwack each had two hits to pace CSB. Hjort struck out eight batters in six innings to go with her one-hit performance.
Augsburg came out hot in the second game, however, and took an early lead on CSB. The Auggies had a pair of RBI singles in the first and two more in the second to go up 4-0. CSB got a run back in the third when Deming hit an inside-the-park solo homer, and made it 4-2 in the fourth when Mikolich doubled and came around to score on an RBI single from
Olivia McCabe.
But Augsburg scored three runs in the fourth on an RBI fielder's choice, an RBI double and a CSB error, and Saint Benedict left the bases loaded in the sixth to help the Auggies hold on for the win.
Mikolich added two more hits to her daily total for CSB, which had just six hits in game two.
Grace Gilmore took the loss after giving up four runs- all earned – on six hits in 1.2 innings. She struck out three batters.
Alex Smith threw the final 4.1 innings and gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits with three strikeouts.
CSB has another busy week this week with three conference doubleheaders on the schedule. The team starts Wednesday at Bethel, hosts Saint Mary's Thursday in a makeup game and then heads to Northfield Saturday to take on Carleton.
