NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team improved to 4-0 in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play by sweeping Concordia-Moorhead by scores of 12-2 and 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at Mabel Shirley Field.
St. Olaf (6-2, 4-0 MIAC) fell behind 2-0 early in game one before scoring the final dozen runs of the game, highlighted by first year
Jaelyn Orth's game-ending three-run home run. Senior
Julie Graf took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in game two but had to settle for the complete-game win as the Oles completed the sweep.
Seniors
Hannah Matthies and
Ally Bode hit back-to-back home runs in a three-run second inning in game two to provide Graf with all the offense she needed. Graf allowed just one hit and two walks in her fourth win of the season while striking out 16.
St. Olaf 12, Concordia-Moorhead 2 (6 inn.) | Box Score
St. Olaf tallied a season-high 15 hits in the opener, getting three apiece from
Kaleigh Santmyer and
Abby Grismer, plus two each from
Hannah Peschel and Orth. The Oles used a seven-run fourth inning to open up an 8-2 lead and went on to end the game an inning early with four more in the sixth.
After entering the game in the second inning,
Carly Dammann held the Cobbers scoreless over her five innings of work, scattering five hits and two walks to earn her second victory of the season. Concordia-Moorhead got back-to-back home runs from Taylor Erholtz and Kenzie Leither in the top of the second before Dammann shut the visitors down over the final five frames.
St. Olaf scratched across a run in the bottom of the second to cut its deficit in half before exploding for seven runs on eight hits in the fourth. The Oles strung together six-straight singles in the seven-run fourth to take a six-run lead.
In the sixth, St. Olaf again strung its hits together, scoring four runs on four consecutive hits. Bode and Grismer started the inning with a single and a double to put two runners in scoring position for
Hannah Peschel, who singled in Bode. On the next pitch, Orth hit her first collegiate home run inside the foul pole down the left-field line to seal the run-rule win.
St. Olaf 3, Concordia-Moorhead 1 | Box Score
Game two featured a matchup of two of the top pitchers in the conference in Graf and Concordia's Megan Gavin. Graf got the better of the matchup, allowing only a leadoff home run in the seventh inning during her complete-game victory.
St. Olaf did all of its damage offensively in the second inning, as Matthies and Bode started the inning with back-to-back home runs off of Gavin. Matthies' home run was her third of the season and the 10th of her career, while Bode's was her first of the season and the second of her career.
After Grismer reached on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice by Graf,
Katie Howard bounced a single up the middle to bring in Grismer and make it a 3-0 game. The score remained 3-0 until Erholtz blasted her second home run of the day to left center to start the top of the seventh and break up Graf's bid for a no-hitter.
Concordia generated a threat in the top of the first by loading the bases on two walks and a hit-by-pitch before Graf got a pair of swinging strikeouts to get out of the frame unscathed. Graf retired 10 batters in a row between the second and sixth innings.
St. Olaf is right back at it on Sunday, April 11 when Augsburg University visits Mabel Shirley Field for a 1 p.m. twin bill.
