ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team was forced to settle for a split, as Macalester College overcame a 5-0 deficit to win game two of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) doubleheader on Monday evening at Macalester Softball Complex.

St. Olaf (19-19, 13-7 MIAC) used a four-run first inning to take a lead it held onto the rest of the way in game one, as the Oles held off Macalester (15-22, 7-14 MIAC) in the seventh inning. The Oles surged out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning of game two, but the Scots scored in five of the final six innings, culminating in a walk-off single by Elsa Church.

With the split, St. Olaf fell into a tie for third place in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) standings with Gustavus Adolphus College at 13-7. St. Catherine University also has seven losses but has played two games fewer in the race for a top-four seed and a home playoff game.

The Oles conclude the regular season with a trip to Duluth to face the College of St. Scholastica on Saturday, May 6. Game times are at 1 and 3 p.m.

St. Olaf 8, Macalester 6 | Box Score

St. Olaf scored in four of the first five innings to open up an 8-3 lead and held off Macalester in the seventh inning to claim the two-run win in game one. Junior Anne Fossum reached base all five times, as the Oles pounded 14 hits and drew seven walks to pick up the win despite leaving 13 runners on base.

Fossum was 3-for-3 with two walks, a double, an RBI, and two runs scored for St. Olaf, which got multi-hit performances from five different hitters in the game. Senior Andrea Conway was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, a run scored, and three RBI, while sophomore Amelia Christenson was 2-for-3 with a walk, and two RBI.

Junior Jenna Peschel leveled her record at 7-7 by throwing four innings of three-run ball before giving way to first year Roxanne Ring, who worked the final three innings. Ring did not allow an earned run (three unearned runs) with a pair of strikeouts to earn her second save of the season.

St. Olaf jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the top of the first before Macalester got two of the runs back in the home half of the inning. Senior Maya Patty and Conway both had run-scoring singles for the Oles before Christenson plated two more with a double off the fence in center.

After the Scots halved their deficit, Fossum delivered a two-out RBI single in the second to push St. Olaf's lead to 5-2. Two innings later, Conway doubled in Fossum and junior Hannah Peschel, who reached on a single and a walk after the first two batters of the inning were retired, to give the Oles a 7-2 cushion.

Leading 7-3, St. Olaf added a run to its advantage when junior Katie Weisheit followed a leadoff double by Jenna Peschel with a single to right center. The Oles threatened to extend their lead even further in the seventh but left the bases loaded. Macalester took advantage of a pair of St. Olaf errors to score three runs on just one hit in the bottom of the seventh, but Ring got a fly ball to end it after the Scots got the tying run to the plate.

Macalester 8, St. Olaf 7 | Box Score

Early in game two, St. Olaf scored three times in the first and twice in the second to establish a 5-0 lead but scored just since runs in the fifth and seventh the rest of the way. Macalester gradually got back into the game with runs in the second and third and two in the fourth before grabbing a 7-6 lead after six. After the Oles scratched across a run to tie the game, Church won it for Macalester with a one-out walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh.

Patty was 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored, and two RBI for St. Olaf, which held a 10-9 edge in hits but could not overcome issuing nine walks in the game. Rylee recorded her fifth-straight two-hit game by going 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored, while Fossum knocked in two runs with a first-inning double.

Fossum opened the scoring for the Oles just four batters into the game, scoring Rylee and Patty with a double to right. Two batters later, Conway singled in Fossum with a hit to center to cap the three-run first. St. Olaf added to its lead in the second on a two-run double to right center by Patty that came after Jenna Peschel drew a walk followed by singles by DeCroock and Rylee.

Macalester chipped away at its deficit with a run in the second, another in the third, and two more in the fourth to get within 5-4. Weisheit added a run to the Oles' lead with a one-out RBI double in the fifth, but Mandy Morrical gave the Scots their first lead of the evening with a three-run triple in the sixth after three-straight Macalester hitters reached on a walk.

St. Olaf took advantage of a Macalester throwing error to push across the tying run in the seventh, but the Scots got the game-winning run in the next half inning. A walk and a single on either side of a strikeout but two runners on with one out for Church, who singled to left to bring home the winning run.