MANKATO, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team opened its season with a split against Bethany Lutheran, winning game one, 10-0, in five innings before dropping game two, 6-1, on Saturday evening at the Maverick All-Sports Dome.
St. Olaf (1-1) claimed the run-rule win in the opener, using a nine-run fourth inning to break the game open, and got a combined shutout from senior
Julie Graf and sophomore
Carly Dammann. Bethany Lutheran (1-1) scored in five of its six innings at the plate to take game two behind a complete game from Kassidy Cunningham.
St. Olaf 10, Bethany Lutheran 0 (5 inn.) | Box Score
St. Olaf led 1-0 after three innings before breaking the game open with a nine-run top of the fourth. The Oles took advantage of five bases-loaded walks and had five hits in the inning.
Graf earned the win by striking out eight in three one-hit innings before Dammann closed out the shutout by tossing the final two innings.
The Oles got on the board first in the top of the third, filling the bases with nobody out on consecutive singles by
Tarah DeCroock,
Annie Landon and
Hannah Matthies.
Andrea Conway followed with an RBI groundout to plate DeCroock.
St. Olaf's first five batters reached in the fourth, as
Maya Patty had a run-scoring double and later scored on a RBI single by DeCroock. With the bases loaded and one out, Conway and
Ally Bode drew bases-loaded walks on either side of a RBI single by
Kaleigh Santmyer before
Sydney Robson, Patty and Landon also walked to bring in runs.
DeCroock, Landon, Matthies, Santmyer and Patty all had two hits in the game. DeCroock was 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI and Patty went 2-for-2 with a walk, a run and two RBI.
Bethany Lutheran 6, St. Olaf 1 | Box Score
The Vikings scored two runs in the first and single runs in the second, third, fourth and sixth in game two, while Cunningham scattered nine hits over a complete game to earn her team a split.
DeCroock and Matthies had their second-straight two-hit games for the Oles, who plated their lone run of the game on a RBI groundout by Robson in the sixth.
Haylee Sobrero reached base three times for Bethany Lutheran, going 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored, while Tara George was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Eden Ambrose was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Robson suffered the loss in the circle for St. Olaf, allowing four runs (three earned) in three innings. Graf fanned six over the final three innings while surrendering two runs (one earned).
The Oles take on the University of Northwestern (Minn.) on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 6/8 p.m. at the Dundas Dome.
