NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team swept St. Catherine University by scores of 6-5 in nine innings and 4-1 in its home opener for its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) victories of the season on Saturday afternoon at Mabel Shirley Field.

St. Olaf (11-9, 2-2 MIAC) was one out away from winning game one in seven innings before St. Kate's (8-14, 2-4 MIAC) forced the game to extra innings, but the Oles pushed across runs on fielder's choices in both the eighth and ninth innings to win the opener in walk-off fashion. In game two, senior Katie Weisheit drove in a career-high three runs while sophomore Madyn Singleton and senior Jenna Peschel held the Wildcats in check to complete the sweep.

Next up for St. Olaf is a trip to nationally-ranked Bethel University on Tuesday, April 9 for a 3:30 p.m. doubleheader in Arden Hills.

St. Olaf 6, St. Kate's 5 (9 inn.) | Box Score

St. Kate's led 2-0 early before St. Olaf scored the next four runs, including three on a fifth-inning home run by senior Hannah Peschel, to take the lead. With the Oles still ahead 4-2, the Wildcats got a two-out, two-run double in the seventh to send the game to extra innings. After the teams traded runs with the international tiebreaker in play in the eighth, St. Olaf prevented St. Kate's from scoring in the ninth before junior Medora Rylee knocked in the game-winning run on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the inning.

Senior Shreya Ashok, Hannah Peschel, and sophomore Roxanne Ring had two hits apiece to tally six of St. Olaf's eight hits in the win. Ashok was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and two runs scored, Peschel added a single to her three-run home run, and Ring also drew a walk to reach base three times.

Ring went 7.2 innings in the circle – the second-longest appearance of her career – for the Oles, allowing five runs (four earned) on 10 hits with two walks and two strikeouts before turning the ball over to senior Jaelyn Orth in the eighth. Orth collected her third victory of the season by retiring four of the five batters she faced, with the lone batter reaching on an error. Orth had two strikeouts among the four outs she recorded.

St. Kate's started the game with a single and a double to quickly put two runners in scoring position, but Ring limited the visitors to one run in the top of the first, with the run coming in on a sacrifice fly. Ring pitched out of a jam in the second inning to keep the score at 1-0 after the Wildcats had runners on second and third with one out.

The Wildcats doubled their lead in the third on a leadoff home run by Helen McKinnon in the third. In the fourth, St. Olaf halved its deficit when the St. Kate's center fielder could not hold onto a fly ball that allowed Ashok to score. Ashok started the inning with a single and stole second before the error.

The Oles took their first lead of the day in the fifth when Hannah Peschel blasted her second home run of the season to right field for a three-run shot that gave St. Olaf a 4-2 advantage. Fifth-year senior Maya Patty drew a walk to start the inning before Ashok got an infield single with two outs to put two on for Peschel.

Ring was one out from a complete-game win in the seventh before Kylee Kohout drove a two-run double into the gap in right center to tie the game at 4-4. After St. Kate's got its runner in in the top of the eighth, St. Olaf answered when Orth bounced a fielder's choice to second and pinch-runner Regan Zak beat the throw home to send the game to a ninth inning. Orth got a pair of strikeouts in the top of the ninth to keep the visitors off the board to set up the walk-off win. After Jenna Peschel advanced pinch-runner Faith Yi with a sacrifice bunt, Rylee hit a grounder to second that allowed Yi to score the winning run.

St. Olaf 4, St. Kate's 1 | Box Score

Weisheit drove in the first three runs of the game to give St. Olaf a 3-0 lead in the third in game two. Singleton and Jenna Peschel made the early lead hold up by limiting St. Kate's to six hits to pitch the Oles to the sweep.

Singleton ran her record to 3-1 on the season after yielding just one run on five hits with two walks and one strikeout in 5.1 innings in the circle. Peschel secured her second save of the season by retiring five of the six batter she faced over the final 1.2 innings.

Ashok was 3-for-3 with a stolen base and two runs scored in her ninth multi-hit game of the season. Weisheit went 2-for-3 with three RBI, while senior Anne Fossum added a run-scoring single in the sixth.

After falling behind early in game one, St. Olaf got on the board first in game two, scoring on a two-out RBI double off the bat of Weisheit. Ashok reached via a bunt single with one out, stole second, and got to third on a wild pitch before a walk to junior Amelia Christenson put two runners on. Weisheit lined a double to right center to bring in Ashok, although the Wildcats avoided further damage in the inning.

St. Kate's loaded the bases with one out in the top of the third, but Singleton got out of the inning unscathed thanks to a line-drive to third and a pop out to shortstop. St. Olaf added two runs to its lead in the next half inning when Weisheit plated Ashok and Rylee with a single to right after coming to bat with runners on second and third and two outs.

It took until the top of the sixth for the Wildcats to get on the board on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Kaitlin Boyles, but the Oles got the run back in the bottom of the inning. With runners on first and second and two outs, Fossum singled to shortstop and pinch-runner Annie Landon scored all the way from second to give St. Olaf its three-run lead back.