NORTHFIELD, Minn. – For the first time in program history, the St. Olaf College softball team will play for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Softball Playoff title, as the Oles rebounded from a 5-0 loss to the University of St. Thomas to start the day with a 5-1 victory over Bethel University on Saturday at Mabel Shirley Field.

Kierstin Anderson-Glass threw a four-hitter to pitch fourth-seeded St. Thomas (27-8) into the championship game with a 5-0 win over St. Olaf (24-5) to start the day. Second-seeded Bethel (27-10) then staved off elimination with a 5-1 win over sixth-seeded Concordia-Moorhead to set up an elimination game with the top-seeded Oles, who got a three-run home run from senior Abby Grismer in the first inning on their way to a 5-1 win.

St. Olaf and St. Thomas will meet on Sunday, May 16 at 11 a.m. to start the championship series at Mabel Shirley Field. If the Oles win that game, there will be a second winner-take-all game to determine the conference champion and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament at 1:30 p.m.

St. Thomas 5, No. 21 St. Olaf 0 | Box Score

Anderson-Glass pitched the Tommies into the championship game for the 15th time in the tournament's 17 seasons with a four-hit shutout in the first game of the day. The Tommies held a slender 1-0 lead until breaking the game open with four runs in the top of the seventh.

Coryn Jacobson did most of the damage offensively for St. Thomas, going 3-for-4 with three RBI out of the leadoff spot. Jacobson started the scoring with a RBI single up the middle in the third and added a two-run single in the Tommies' four-run seventh.

St. Olaf had a couple of chances to tie the game at 1-1 before the game got away late. The Oles put two runners in scoring position with one out in the fourth and two runners on base with two away in the sixth, but Anderson-Glass escaped both jams.

Julie Graf suffered just her fourth loss of the season for St. Olaf, limiting St. Thomas to one run through six innings before the big seventh inning. Graf struck out 11 and did not walk a batter in the loss.

No. 21 St. Olaf 5, Bethel 1 | Box Score

Grismer jump-started the St. Olaf offense early in the team's second game of the day, homering just inside the foul pole down the left-field line to put the Oles ahead 3-0 early. Graf made the lead stand up, holding Bethel to one unearned run on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in her 20th win of the season.



After the first two batters of the bottom were retired, St. Olaf put together a two-out rally, getting a single from Santmyer and an error on a fielder's choice to put two on for Grismer. The senior hit a towering fly ball that landed just over the fence and inside the foul pole in left for her third home run of the season.

Maya Patty started the bottom of the second with one of her three hits in the game and later came around to score on an RBI single by Tarah DeCroock to add a run to the Oles' lead. Patty's three-hit game was her second of the season.

The Royals scored their lone run of the game in the fourth, as Jamie Axelberg started the inning with a single, moved to second on a passed ball, and scored on a single by Kayla Hokanson.

St. Olaf tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Patty's third single of the game brought in pinch-runner Kaelin Sbrocco to make it a 5-1 game. The hit was the Oles' third in a row to start the inning, which began with a double by Grismer and a single by Katie Weisheit.