ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- Bryn Ruhberg … power hitter.

It's a description the College of Saint Benedict softball junior catcher/outfielder still has a hard time accepting.
 
That's understandable when you consider that prior to this season – from youth softball through her first two years at the collegiate level – the Centennial High School graduate had hit just five home runs total.
 
But she's already doubled that number with a team-best five this spring alone.
 
"I'm still in shock every time a ball goes over the fence," she said with a laugh.
 
"I don't see myself as a power hitter, but it's nice to know all the extra strength work I put in over the winter is paying off."
 
Indeed, Ruhberg credits strength and conditioning coaches Colin Briscoe and Lisa Bollinger with devising an offseason program that helped her emerge far stronger than she's been in years past.
 
"I've never been the biggest or the strongest player on the field," the 5-foot-8 Ruhberg said. "That's not who I am. But I've been working with Colin and Lisa since last fall with a real emphasis on lifting and improving my strength. I still don't look like the biggest or strongest, but it feels like I've improved a lot. I also had some issues with the timing of my swing in the past. So I've worked a lot on that in the batting cage and in practice. I've learned some verbal cues – things I can tell myself in my head – that slow me down and make sure my mechanics are right in certain situations."
 
Ruhberg said she's also gotten better at shrugging off adversity.
 
"There have been times when I've let failures at the plate leak into my next at-bat or my next game," she said. "But this year I've tried really hard to turn the page quicker. If I strike out, or an at-bat doesn't go the way I want it to, I'm doing better at coming back to the dugout, being a good teammate and trusting I'll come up big when I get my next chance."
 
That mix of resolve and resilience seems to be paying off. Ruhberg – who as a sophomore batted .302 with 38 hits and 16 RBI – currently boasts a .386 batting average with 34 hits and 33 RBI. Ruhberg, who has set a school season record with 15 hit by pitch and owns the career mark of 25, heads into the playoffs ranked seventh all-time at CSB for a season in on-base percentage (.509) and 10^th in slugging percentage (.682).

"She's been a sparkplug for us offensively," said CSB head coach Rachael Click, whose team (17-5 MIAC, 25-13 overall) has earned the No. 2 seed in this weekend's MIAC tournament.
 
That comes with a first-round bye, meaning the Bennies will face the winner of Thursday's matchup between No. 6 seed St. Catherine (10-12, 18-22) and No. 3 seed St. Olaf (14-8, 23-15) in the semifinals at 1:30 p.m., Saturday (May 10) in Winona.
 
Top-seed and host St. Mary's (22-0, 37-3) takes on the winner of Thursday's matchup between No. 5 seed Bethel (12-10, 19-20) and No. 4 seed Macalester (13-9, 26-14) at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The semifinal winners meet for the championship at 4 p.m. Saturday with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs on the line.
 
"She's come up with a lot of clutch hits with runners in scoring position," Click said of Ruhberg. "But she's also become such a great team leader in the dugout. Like a lot of our players, she's someone who's really had to earn her opportunities. It's hard when you get to college because you're used to being the top player on your high school team. Then you get here and you have to put in the work it takes to get better. She's done that, and now she embodies the confidence and maturity it takes to be successful at this level."
 
That confidence has only grown with each home run. She hadn't homered at all during her first two seasons at CSB, which meant the home run she hit in a 6-4 win in game two of a nonconference doubleheader at Wartburg (Iowa) on March 22 was the first of her collegiate career.
 
"I'm used to having to run full speed around the bases," she said. "I don't have a lot of experience at getting to jog. But I like it. It's really fun."
 
Ruhberg grew up with a mitt in her hand. Her father Bill – a geographic information system mapper – played college baseball at Wisconsin-Stevens Point and passed his love of the game down to Ruhberg and younger brother Jack, now 16.
 
"There are pictures of me at age two wearing a dress with a bat in my hand," she said. "We spent a lot of time playing in the yard or watching the Twins together."
 
In fact, Ruhberg played baseball for a couple of years before she was old enough to join a youth softball league in the Lino Lakes area.
 
"I was the funny little girl wearing a pink batting helmet out there with all the boys," she recalled. "But that helped me a lot when I got old enough and crossed over to softball."
 
Ruhberg – whose mother Meredith is an executive with an insurance company – majors in political science and is hoping to go to law school after she graduates from CSB a year from now.
 
"I've always been interested in government and law," she said. "Political science seemed like a good way to prepare myself to get accepted into law school.
 
"I've been known to negotiate a few times with umpires behind the plate, so being a catcher is helping me work on my lawyer skills as well. Hopefully, that will pay off down the line."

Right now, though, her focus is on helping CSB bring home a conference title this weekend. It won't be an easy task. If the Bennies win their semifinal matchup, they are likely to run into host St. Mary's in the final.
 
The Cardinals are ranked No. 11 in the most recent NFCA Division III national coaches poll and beat CSB 1-0 and 4-3 when the two teams met in the regular season on April 19 in Winona.

Since then, though, the Bennies have won eight in a row.
 
"We're really excited because it seems like in the past couple of weeks, we've finally been able to put it all together," Ruhberg said. "It feels like we're playing our best softball right now. We played St. Mary's earlier in the year, and we lost two one-run games. So if we get the chance to play them again, we know we can compete," she said.
 
"But we have to take it one step at a time," Ruhberg said. "We know whatever team we face in the semifinals will be a huge challenge. So right now, all our attention is on winning that game."