ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict softball team (24-17), which is making its third appearance in the NCAA DIII Softball National Tournament since 2017, will travel to face the No. 12 UW-Oshkosh (39-4) at noon on Thursday, May 16 in Oshkosh, Wis.

On Monday (May 13), the Bennies, directed by veteran head coach Rachael Click, earned an at-large selection to the 62-team field. Saint Benedict, which won its first regular season MIAC title since 1994, will compete in a four-team, double elimination regional from May 16-18  in Oshkosh, Wis. Also in the four-team field is Illinois Wesleyan (30-10) and Wartburg (Iowa) (23-16), who will face each other at 2:30 p.m., on Thursday in the other first-round game.

Schedule 
Thursday - May 16
Game 1 - UW-Oshkosh vs Saint Benedict - 12 p.m. 
Game 2 - Wartburg vs. Illinois Wesleyan - 2:30 p.m.

Friday - May 17
Game 3- Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner, 11 a.m.
Game 4 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1:30 p.m.  
Game 5 - Game 3 loser vs Game 4 winner, 4 p.m.

Saturday - May 18
Game 6 - Game 3 winner vs Game 5 winner, 11 a.m.
Game 7 - If necessary 

Tournament Notes on Bennies
CSB had a 24-17 record in 2024 and was one of three teams (Saint Mary's and No. 18 Bethel) to win a share of the MIAC regular season title with a 17-5 record. All three teams earned berths in the NCAA DIII Softball Championship field and all in different regions.

CSB, which has one of the highest strength of schedule rankings in DIII, was the No. 2 seed in the MIAC Tournament but lost to Bethel, 5-3, in the MIAC Tournament semifinals on May 11.

When Saint Benedict plays on Thursday, the Bennies will make its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance after also receiving a berth in 1993, 1994, 2018, 2019, and 2022. Heading into the regional, CSB is 6-10 in NCAA Tournament play.

UW-Oshkosh, which won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a 12-2 record, dropped a 2-1 decision to Wisconsin-Whitewater in the WIAC tournament title game on May 11.  As a team, the Titans are hitting .327 and own a .395 on-base percentage. Senior Hannah Ritter is hitting .435 with 57 hits including 15 doubles and 34 RBI. Senior Sydney Rau is batting .405 with 49 hits while Sophie Wery has 11 home runs and 47 RBI. In the circle, Sydney Nemetz leads with a 17-2 record and 1.18 ERA while Abby Freismuth has a 12-1 record and 1.28 ERA.

Series Notes – CSB leads UW-Oshkosh, 1-0
In the only meeting CSB defeated then No. 12 UW-Oshkosh, 1-0 on a walk-off double by Bryn Carlstrom in the bottom of the seventh inning on Feb. 26, 2022 in Mankato, Minn. Elly Novak earned the win in the circle with a complete game shutout.

Against Wartburg, CSB trails, 7-1, losing a pair of games on March 29 on the road. In the first match-up ever, the Bennies lost, 7-2, on May 5, 1994. Saint Benedict lost 6-5, to Wartburg in the NCAA DIII regional on May 15, 2022. On March 2, 2020 in Clermont, Fla, CSB took a 7-2 win.

CSB has a 2-1 record against Illinois Wesleyan, including an 8-0 win on May 14, 2022 at the NCAA DIII Regional in St. Joseph. The Bennies took a 4-1 win on March 9, 1994 in the first meeting and IWU won, 3-1, on March 17, 2011.

Notes – Other Teams at Regional
As for the other teams in the regional. Illinois Wesleyan captured the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament to earn a bid. It is their 16th title since 1995. Wartburg earned an at large bid after falling to Luther, 4-1, in the American Rivers Conference Tournament on May 10.  

The regional round on May 16-18 includes four teams which will compete at 15 regional sites and two teams will compete at one regional site. The team advancing from each regional will compete in the super regional round May 23 and 24. The finals, hosted by East Texas Baptist University, will be held May 30 - June 5 at Bell Park at Taylor Field in Marshall, Texas.  

Breaking down the Bennies
Sophomore outfielder Olivia Tautges, who earlier won a Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Player of the Week honor and was a program-first three-time MIAC Player of the Week, leads the offense with a .407 batting average and a 1.293 OPS. Tautges, who has 13 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games, has a league-high 14 home runs (4th, DIII) and 44 RBI. (31st, DIII). She has set the CSB school single season record for home runs and ranks tied for fifth with 15 in her career (Sara Wennerstrand, 2015-18). Through 147 career at bats, Tautges has a career slugging mark of .748, which is first all-time at CSB and her .391 batting average in two seasons ranks eighth in school history. She is also seventh at CSB with a career on-base-percentage of .444. In terms of season marks, she also ranks second all-time (Mary Welle, 1997, .878) with a .839 slugging percentage. She is also second all-time behind Lexi Alm (2014, 103) with 99 total bases in a season.
 
Junior pitcher/outfielder Addy Bowne is hitting .345 with junior outfielder Maddy Kubik batting .366 and owning 16 RBI with 34 hits. Sophomore infielder Bryn Ruhberg is batting .319 with an .791 OPS. 
 
Junior outfielder Megan Erickson has five home runs, 32 RBI and a .317 average while leading CSB with 12 doubles. Senior Tori Benson has six home runs and ranks third all-time at CSB with 21 in her career.  She is hitting .301 with 29 RBI and a .545 slugging mark. With 95 RBI, she is sixth in program history.

Another senior Bryn Carlstrom has a .341 average, 26 RBI and 46 hits with a .393 slugging mark. She also has a .332 career batting average for 20th all-time at CSB. With 145 career hits, Carlstrom ranks 11^th all-time in school history and her 86 RBI ranks tied for ninth with Megan Toninato (2015-18).
 
Sophomore Cat Smetana has a .359 average with 47 hits. Her .362 (68 career hits) career batting average is 15th all-time at CSB. In total, CSB has eight players hitting over .300.
 
In the circle, sophomore Ellie Peterson (13-5), sophomore Olivia Wallace (5-10) and Addy Bowne (6-2) have a combined 64 appearances and 40 starts with a 3.59 earned run average. Peterson has a 2.93 ERA. She leads CSB with three shutouts and 11 complete games as well as 91 strikeouts. Peterson's 20 starts in a season is tied for fourth all-time for a season with Emily Engelmeier (2014) and Stacie Klaviter (1993).

By the Numbers
Through 31 games, the Bennies have a .319 team batting average, which ranks seventh for a season all-time and a .467 slugging mark for eighth for a season in school history. With a .372 OBP the Bennies have the 13th best mark all-time. CSB finished with 29 home runs, second all-time in school history and its 225 RBI is also second for a season all-time. In the circle, CSB had a 3.82 earned run average with 166 strikeouts and 20 complete games. Individually, sophomore Olivia Tautges hit .407 with a school-record 14 home runs and 44 RBI, which is tied for third all-time with Emilie Antony in 2017. Tautges, a three-time MIAC Player of the Week, had a .839 slugging for second all-time and also had a .454 OBP, which is top 15 in school history. Maddy Kubik hit .366 while Cat Smetana was at .359 with 47 hits, just one behind Tautges for the team lead. Senior Bryn Carlstrom finished with a .341 batting average while senior Tori Benson was at .301 with six home runs as she had 21 in her career for third all-time at CSB. Peterson leads the pitching staff with a 13-5 record, 11 complete games and a 3.06 earned run average.