ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fourth-seeded St. Olaf College softball team dropped a pitcher's duel, 1-0, to the top-seeded and fourth-ranked University of St. Thomas to open the 2019 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Softball Playoffs on Friday afternoon at South Field.

In a matchup of two of the top pitchers in the conference, Kierstin Anderson-Glass and Julie Graf each yielded just four hits, but St. Thomas (36-5) used a two-out triple by Elise Barnes in the third to score the game's only run and edge St. Olaf (26-13). Barnes scored on a wild pitch after her two-out triple.

Anderson-Glass allowed just five baserunners in the game, but needed a line-drive double play to end the game and snuff out a threat in the seventh. With the Oles trailing by a run and one out, Hannah Matthies singled to the pitcher and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Emily Carr dropped a bloop double just inside the left-field line to put two runners in scoring position.

With the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second, Abby Grismer hit a hard line drive back to Anderson-Glass, who snagged it in the air and threw to third for a game-ending double play.

With the win, St. Thomas advances to face No. 3 seed Hamline, which blanked No. 2 seed St. Catherine, 7-0, in the second game of the day to begin the second day of the tournament on Saturday, May 4 at 11 a.m. The Oles and Wildcats will play an elimination game at 1:30 p.m. and the winner of that game will turn around and play the loser of the Tommies-Pipers contest at 4 p.m. in another eliminiation game.
 
The Tommies left a runner at second base in the bottom of the first and the Oles did the same in the top of the third, as the game remained scoreless. St. Thomas pushed across the only run of the game in the bottom of the third when Barnes tripled to the gap in right-center and scored on a wild pitch.

In the fifth, the Tommies threatened to add an insurance run, as Jaylen Heller hit a leadoff single but was cut down by second baseman Kate Arneson trying to stretch it into a double. The defensive play paid off later in the inning for the Oles, as Barnes doubled to center with two outs but was left there.

Anderson-Glass, who entered the game ranked sixth in NCAA Division III with a 0.93 ERA for the season, made the single run hold up to improve to 19-3 on the season.

Graf saw her run of eight-straight winning decisions come to an end despite allowing just one run on four hits. The junior struck out four and did not walk a batter while falling to 17-10.