NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Senior Hannah Matthies delivered a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to give the top-seeded St. Olaf College softball team a 2-1 victory over sixth-seeded Concordia-Moorhead to open its run at the 2021 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Softball Playoffs on Friday afternoon at Mabel Shirley Field.

Concordia (22-20) scored in the first inning and held the lead until St. Olaf (23-4) tied it up in the sixth to extend the game to extra innings. The Oles filled the bases with one out for Matthies in the eighth and the senior came through by bouncing a single through the left side to plate Annie Landon for the game-winning run.

With the win and St. Thomas' 9-1 victory over Bethel in the second game of the day, St. Olaf will face the fourth-seeded Tommies at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 15. The Cobbers and Royals will play an elimination game after that at 1:30 p.m.

St. Olaf's Julie Graf and Concordia's Megan Gavin entered the game ranks first and third in the country in strikeouts, respectively, with 238 and 208 and were locked in a pitchers' duel throughout the game. Graf ultimately earned her 19th win of the season, striking out a career-high-tying 19 batters while allowing one run on three hits and walking just one.

Gavin took the loss despite allowing two unearned runs in 7.1 innings, giving up six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Coming off their program's first playoff win the day before, the Cobbers jumped on the board right away in the top of the first. Concordia filled the bases with one on a bunt single, a wild pitch on a strikeout, and a walk and, after a strikeout, pushed a run across on a hit batter.

Gavin made the 1-0 lead stand up all the way until the bottom of the sixth. Landon led off the inning with an infield single, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, and scored on a dropped fly ball off the bat of Ally Bode. Bode advanced all the way to third on the play but was left there as Gavin got the final two batters of the inning to keep the game tied.

In the bottom of the eighth, Landon again led off with an infield single and Tarah DeCroock drew a walk to put two runners on. Kaleigh Santmyer reached base on a fielding error with one out to fill the bases for Matthies, who grounded a single through the left side of the infield to give the Oles the walk-off win.

The RBI was Matthies' 49th of the season as she continues to add to her single-season program record. Landon and Maya Patty had two hits apiece for St. Olaf, while Riley Bergstrom had two of Concordia's three hits in the game.