ST JOSEPH, Minn.-- After winning 12 of the last 13 games, the College of Saint Benedict Softball team (14-12, 9-1 MIAC) will host Saint Mary's (19-7, 7-3 MIAC)  in a MIAC doubleheader at 1/3 p.m., on Saturday, April 20 at the CSB  Softball Field.  After winning 5-of-6 in league play, Bennies sit in first place in the MIAC with a 9-1 record while the Cardinals have a 7-3 league mark and tied for third.

Up Next
On Sunday, April 21, the Bennies will face a nonconference road test at UW- Eau Claire (12-8, 1-1 WIAC) at 1/3 p.m.

About the Cardinals
Directed by ninth-year head coach John Tschida, the Cardinals have a 19-7 overall record and stand 7-3 in the MIAC.  On April 14, they dropped 5-2 and 5-1 decisions to St. Olaf at home after defeating No. 10 Bethel, 7-4 and 4-1 in Arden Hills, Minn., on April 13. As a team, St. Mary's is hitting .343 and allowing a .274 batting average. In the circle, the Cardinals have a 2.95 earned run average. Makayla Steffes is hitting .458 with a .590 slugging and 13 RBI to lead the offense. In the circle, Steffes is 10-4 with a 2.43 earned run average.     

Series Notes - St. Ben's leads, 41-34
In the last match up, Saint Benedict dropped a 5-2 decision at Saint Mary's. In the series, CSB has a 41-34 overall lead with a 26-14 home record. On the road CSB is 13-17 with a 39-33 conference mark. In the last 10 meetings, CSB has won nine. In addition, the Bennies won the first ever matchup on May 3, 1986 by a 3-2 score.

Saint Benedict faced early schedule among best in DIII and now on 12-1 run
The Bennies have faced one of the toughest schedules in NCAA DIII with eight games of the first 14 played against teams ranked in the NFCA NCAA DIII top 25. CSB had a walk-off 11-9 win over then No. 12 Belhaven as Olivia Tautges hit a dramatic three-run, game-winning home run. The Bennies recorded a 5-4 win over Emory University on March 7 as Olivia Wallace recorded her first win of her career. In addition, CSB had a come-from-behind 6-3 extra innings (11 innings)  victory over Central College on March 30 as Sammy Muetzel had a sacrifice fly to give CSB a 4-3 lead before Maddy Kubik's two-run single pushed the lead to 6-3 in the decisive 11th inning. Against Central College, CSB had a career-best pitching performance from Ellie Peterson, who worked 11 innings, had six strikeouts, and allowed just one earned run. CSB now has two wins over top-25 opponents this season. 

Against Coe College on March 23, the Bennies dropped 5-4 and 4-1 decisions at the Husky Dome as the snowstorm that hit the area prevented games from being played at the CSB Softball Field. On March 29, CSB dropped 7-1 and 6-5 decisions to Wartburg (12-9) before splitting a pair of games with No. 24 Central College (13-6) falling, 8-1, before winning 6-3 in extra innings in game two on March 30.

Since defeating No. 24 Central College in 11 innings, CSB has won 11-of-12 games, including 9-of-10 to open the MIAC schedule. CSB has defeated St. Olaf, 8-3 and 7-2 on April 3; UW-Stout, 10-2 and 2-1 on April 4; Augsburg, 9-0, and 9-0 on April 6; and Concordia 12-1 and 10-1 on April 9; The Bennies dropped a 7-2 decision against St. Catherine University and defeated the Wildcats 9-0 in game two. On April 14, CSB swept Macalester College by scores of 15-5, 18-2 by scoring 33 runs on 31 hits. Then, this past Wednesday, the MIAC games with Carleton College were postponed and moved to April 24 due to the heavy rains which caused poor playing conditions.

Inside look at Bennies
Directed by 11th-year head coach Rachael Click, the Bennies are hitting. 321 for third in the MIAC with a .842 OPS as a team. Saint Benedict has 235 hits, including 18 home runs, 48 doubles and four triples. Reigning MIAC and Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Player of the Week Olivia Tautges, who has a 13-game hitting streak, leads the offense with a .408 batting average and a 1.328 OPS. She has a league-high nine home runs and 28 RBI. Sophomore infielder Bryn Ruhberg is hitting .391 and she owns a .946 OPS with 27 hits and a .482 on-base percentage. Junior Pitcher/Outfielder Addy Bowne is batting .357 with a .752 OPS. Senior infielder Bryn Carlstrom has pushed her season-average to .337 and owns a .754 OPS with 29 hits and 17 RBI. Sophomore infielder Cat Smetana, who earlier had a 13-game hitting streak, is batting .388 with an .992 OPS, 15 RBI and 33 hits while junior outfielder Maddy Kubik has a .344 batting average. In the circle, sophomore Ellie Peterson (7-4) and junior Addy Bowne (5-2) lead the way, making a total of 25 combined appearances. Peterson has a team-high 74.2 innings with 13 starts and a team-best 54 strikeouts. This past week, Peterson was 3-0 with a 1.17 earned run average. Sophomore Olivia Wallace has made 16 appearances with nine starts while working 51.2 innings with 31 strikeouts.

Streaks and miscellaneous notes
Led by a 13-game hitting streak by Olivia Tautges, two players have current hitting streaks of six games or more (Megan Erickson, eight games; Maddy Kubik, six games). Tautges and Carlstrom lead the team with nine multi-hit games. In multi-RBI games, Tautges leads CSB with nine. In the last 16 games, Tautges is hitting .549 with eight home runs and 25 RBI plus 20 runs scored, six walks, and 58 total bases. She has a 1.137 slugging percentage and .596 on-base percentage.
 
Ranked among top-10 in NCAA Division III/MIAC
As a team, the College of Saint Benedict Softball team ranks among the top-5 in the MIAC in 11 statistical categories including batting average (.321), doubles (48), doubles per game (1.85), fielding percentage (.967), hits (236), home runs (18), home runs per game (0.69), scoring (5.18), slugging percentage (6.08), runs (158) and stolen bases (40). In NCAA DIII, Tautges ranks eighth in home runs per game with 0.38 per game and eighth in total home runs with nine. And, she is also ranked 21^st in DIII in slugging at .873.  She leads the MIAC in all three categories as well as RBI with 28.
 
Tautges earns back-to-back MIAC honors
Tautges, who was named the NCAA DIII Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Softball Association (NFCA) Player of the Week on Tuesday, April 9, is also the St. Cloud Orthopedics / CSB Athlete of the Week for a second straight week. She is the 13th Saint Benedict player to earn MIAC Player of the Week honors as the program now has 21 total award recipients. Tautges is the third CSB player (Sara Wennerstrand, 3/7/2016; 3/28/2016; 3/13/2017; 4/17/2017; and Gabby Spencer, 2/28/22; and 4/10/23) to earn two or more MIAC player of the week honors. In addition, she is just the second CSB player (Sara Wennerstrand) to get the honor twice in the same season. This week, Tautges extended her hitting streak to 13 games to help CSB generate a .401 team batting average with 66 runs (10.6 per game) and 71 hits with a combined .684 slugging mark. CSB scored nine or more runs in five of six games including 12-1 and 10-1 decisions over Concordia; 9-0 win over St. Catherine; and 15-5 and 18-2 victories against Macalester which helped the Bennies take over first place in the MIAC with a 9-1 record.