MANKATO, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team picked up wins over a pair of 2022 NCAA Tournament teams on Sunday at the Bethany Kwik Trip Invitational, holding off Buena Vista University by a 7-6 score before scoring 12 unanswered runs over its final two innings at the plate to stun UW-Eau Claire, 17-13, to close out the weekend.

St. Olaf (2-2) started the day by opening up a 5-1 lead on Buena Vista (1-6) before holding off the Beavers over the late innings for the 7-6 victory in the Oles' third-straight one-run game. Later in the day, UW-Eau Claire (2-2) jumped out to leads of 5-0, 9-3, and 13-5, but St. Olaf stormed back with five runs in the fifth and seven runs in the sixth to claim the 17-13 win.

Junior Hannah Peschel led the Oles offensively over the two games, going 6-for-9 with two doubles, four RBI, and five runs scored. For the weekend, Peschel hit .625 (10-for-16) with a .647 on-base percentage and .813 slugging percentage with three doubles, six RBI, and seven runs scored.

St. Olaf 7, Buena Vista 6 | Box Score

In its first game of the day, St. Olaf scored in each of its first four innings at the plate to take a 5-1 lead into the fifth inning. Buena Vista fought back, however, scoring five of the next seven runs to make it a one-run game before junior Jaelyn Orth finished off a complete game in the circle for the Oles.

Sophomore Amelia Christenson posted the first three-hit game of her collegiate career for St. Olaf, going 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored, and a career-high three RBI. Junior Shreya Ashok, sophomore Medora Rylee, and Peschel all had a pair of hits in the win. Rylee reached base all four times by going 2-for-2 with a double, two walks, and two runs scored.

Orth limited the Beavers to five hits and struck out nine over the complete-game victory, overcoming eight walks to allow four earned runs (six runs) in seven innings of work for her first win of the season.

Peschel and Christenson got the St. Olaf offense going in the top of the first, producing back-to-back two-out, run-scoring hits to give the Oles an early lead. St. Olaf generated another two-out run in the second, as senior Maya Patty drove a run-scoring single up the middle in an inning that started with consecutive outs to make it 3-0.

After the teams traded runs in the third, Christenson dropped an RBI single into center field to plate Ashok with two away in the top of the fourth to give the Oles a 5-1 lead. Buena Vista made it a 5-3 game in the bottom of the fifth, but St. Olaf got both of the runs back in the next half inning, only for the Beavers to score three runs in the home half of the sixth to get within a run.

Orth stranded the tying run at third by getting a comebacker to the circle to end the sixth before striking out the first two batters of a scoreless seventh to slam the door.

St. Olaf 17, UW-Eau Claire 13 | Box Score

UW-Eau Claire scored five runs in the first and four runs in the third to surge out to a 9-3 lead before increasing its lead to 13-5 heading into the bottom of the fifth. The Oles started their big comeback with five runs in the home half of the fifth and went on to plate seven runs on seven hits in the bottom of the sixth to complete the rally.

Five hitters had multi-hit games for St. Olaf, which recorded its highest run total (17) since 2017 and its highest hit total since (2010) in the win. The Oles' 17 runs were the third-most in recorded program history (since 2001) and the most since an 18-0 win over Bethany Lutheran College on Feb. 24, 2017, while the team's 19 hits were tied for the second-most in recorded program history and the most since also having 19 in an 11-4 game-one victory at Martin Luther College on May 3, 2010.

Peschel led the Oles offensively by recording her first-career four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with a double, three runs scored, and three RBI. Sophomore Emma Simons also registered her first-career four-hit game with a 4-for-5 performance that included two doubles, two runs scored, and three RBI. Patty was 3-for-5 with a double, three runs scored, and three RBI as well.

UW-Eau Claire used big innings in the first and third to take an early 9-3 lead and extended its lead to 13-5 with three runs in the fifth. St. Olaf started its rally in the fifth with a five-run inning that included run-scoring hits by Simons, Ashok, Patty, and Peschel to make it a 13-10 game.

After a 1-2-3 top of the sixth, seven of the first eight batters reached – six by hit – to start the seven-run bottom of the inning. Patty tied the game at 13-13 with a two-run single to center before Christenson delivered the go-ahead, two-run single of her own to break the tie and give St. Olaf its first lead of the game. Simons capped the inning with an RBI single to right center for her fourth hit of the game.

The Blugolds got two runners in scoring position in the top of the seventh, but junior Jenna Peschel closed out the win by getting a ground out to first. Peschel picked up her first win of the season by throwing 4.1 innings of relief, allowing just two earned runs (four runs) on five hits.

In its second weekend of dome games, St. Olaf matches up with UW-Eau Claire again for two games at 4 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 in Rochester before taking on UW-La Crosse and Luther College the following day.