NORTHFIELD, Minn. – After struggling to string together hits to start the MIAC season, the College of Saint Benedict softball team seems to have found its groove as the regular season winds down.
 
CSB scored 19 runs on 22 hits in a big MIAC sweep of Carleton Saturday afternoon in Northfield. Saint Benedict won the first game 9-1 in six innings and the second 10-0 to improve to 23-11 overall and 11-7 in the conference. With two conference doubleheaders left in the regular season, CSB sits in fourth just behind Hamline in the conference standings.
 
St. Thomas leads the league at 16-2, St. Kate's is second (13-3), St. Olaf is third (13-5) and the Pipers currently occupy the fourth spot at 11-5. The top four teams at the end of the regular season earn a spot in the MIAC postseason tournament.
 
In the first game of the day, CSB scored once in the first on an RBI double from Kendra Swanson. The Knights (23-10, 9-7) got that run back in the second, but Olivia McCabe hit a solo homer – the first of her career - in the third to put CSB up 2-1. McCabe added another RBI to her total with an RBI single in the fourth, and CSB broke open the game with two hits, three walks, a hit by pitch and a Carleton error in the fifth innings.
 
Madison Mikolich had a two-run single, Emilie Antony had an RBI fielder's choice and Maya Chuppe sent in a run with an RBI single as CSB scored four runs in the inning. Kendra Swanson hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to put CSB up by eight and end the game early.
 
Swanson finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs to lead CSB, which had eight total hits. Claire Boatman and McCabe both had two hits, and Mikolich and McCabe had a pair of RBIs. Ally Hjort threw all seven innings and gave up three hits and one unearned run while striking out two to earn the win on the mound.
 
Saint Benedict jumped on the Knights early in the second game and never let up. Kate Deming had a two-run single, Mo Burns had an RBI double and McCabe added another RBI single to her total as part of a four-run second inning. After hitting the first homer of her career in the first game, McCabe added a second – a two-run shot – in the fourth inning of the second game and Deming singled and scored on an error to make it 7-0 after four innings. Deming had an RBI double and Burns hit a two-run single in the seventh to get CSB to double digits on the scoreboard.
 
Deming finished 4-for-4 with a trio of RBIs to pace CSB. After Saturday's games, she sits at 54 hits for the second, which is just nine shy of the school record for hits in a season. Burns and McCabe both added two hits and three RBIs and Antony and Swanson each had two hits for Saint Benedict, which had 14 total hits.
 
Hjort picked up her second win of the day on the mound after not allowing a single run to cross the plate. Grace Gilmore came in late in the game and also held the Knights scoreless.
 
CSB wraps up its busy week Monday when it travels to Moorhead for a makeup date with Concordia. The team wraps up the MIAC season next Saturday, April 27, when it hosts St. Olaf.