ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Tiffany Thompson did everything she could to help the College of Saint Benedict softball team wrap up the last weekend of the regular season with a sweep of Saint Mary's Sunday afternoon.
 
She picked up both wins on the mound and hit a walk-off home run in the second game to lift the Bennies to a pair of five-inning wins by scores of 9-1 and 14-6. With the MIAC playoffs scheduled to start Thursday, CSB is now 27-7 overall and 15-5 and in third in the MIAC. The top two seeds get a buy in Thursday's quarterfinal round while the third through six seeds play to see who moves on to the semifinals Saturday at Bethel.
 
Sunday's first game against the Cardinals (16-16, 9-12) was all Bennies, all the time. CSB used two hits – including a leadoff double from Gabby Spencer – along with one Cardinal error, three walks, two wild pitches and two passed balls to take a 4-0 lead after one inning. CSB added enough runs to end the game early in the fourth thanks to RBI singles from Spencer, Addy Bowne and Katie Carlson along with another SMU error and three walks. The Cardinals scored one in the fifth, but it wasn't enough to keep the game going.
 
Spencer finished 2-for-2 to pace CSB, which had six hits. Thompson picked up the win on the mound after giving up a single run and just two hits in five innings of work. She struck out a career-best four batters.
 
The second game also ended in five innings, but it got off to a very different start.
 
Saint Mary's loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, but a lineout to second and a groundout to shortstop ended the threat. The Bennies scored two in the bottom of the inning on a two-run single from Carlson following singles from Spencer and Bowne and a Cardinal error, but SMU took a 6-2 lead in the second.
 
The Cardinals had four hits and took advantage of two Bennie errors to put up six runs in the top of the inning, including a two-run single. Spencer reached on an error and came around to score on an RBI groundout from Bryn Carlstrom to make it 6-3 in the bottom of the inning, and the Bennies took the lead back in the third when they scored four more runs thanks to two hits and two SMU errors.
 
Carlson added an RBI double to her daily resume, Megan Rasmussen had a sacrifice bunt to score a run, Carlson scored on a passed ball and Spencer reached on an error to score a run and make it 7-6. The Bennies made it 13-6 in the fourth on an RBI fielder's choice from Mo Burns, an RBI single from Rasmussen, a two-run double from Jordyn Swoboda and RBI doubles from Lizzy Walker and Spencer, and then Thompson ended the game in the bottom of the fifth with the first home run of her collegiate career.
 
Carlson went 2-for-2 with a trio of RBIs to lead CSB. Swoboda was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Spencer added two hits for the Bennies, who had 11 total hits. Bowne threw the first 1.1 innings and gave up five runs (two earned) on four hits, and Thompson threw the final 3.2 innings to pick up her second win of the day and fifth of the season. She gave up a single run on four hits.
 
Saint Benedict is now waiting to find out what seed it gets in the MIAC Tournament. The Bennies are in third after their wins Sunday, but St. Olaf and St. Kate's play a makeup doubleheader Monday with seeding implications for all three teams at stake. Bethel clinched its second MIAC title in program history on Friday when it swept Augsburg. The Royals host the conference semifinal and championship games on Saturday, May 7.