MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team picked up its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) sweep of the season with 7-0 and 11-3 (five innings) victories over Augsburg University on Sunday afternoon at Edor Nelson Field.
Senior
Roxanne Ring tossed a four-hit shutout in game one before senior
Madyn Singleton shut down Augsburg (7-18, 2-7 MIAC) over 5.0 scoreless innings of relief in game two, as the duo pitched St. Olaf (11-11, 4-2 MIAC) to the sweep. The Oles also hit .391 as a team in the two wins, which gave St. Olaf 21 victories in the last 23 games in the series since 2015.
The Oles will return home for just their second doubleheader of the season at Mabel Shirley Field when St. Catherine visits Northfield on Wednesday, April 15 for a 3:30 p.m. start.
St. Olaf 7, Augsburg 0 | Box Score
Ring held Augsburg to four hits with two walks and a season-high nine strikeouts in the sixth shutout of her collegiate career in game one. St. Olaf backed Ring with a 13-hit attack that included three-hit performances from juniors
Eva Hokanson and
Regan Zak.
Zak was 3-for-4 with a triple, two stolen bases, and two runs scored out of the No. 9 spot in the lineup for the Oles, while Hokanson was 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI. First year
Hannah Yaeger went 2-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch, one run scored, and two RBI as well.
Hokanson opened the scoring by doubling in first year
Joy Jung, who had doubled with one out, with two outs in the top of the first to give St. Olaf an early lead. The Oles added four runs to their advantage in the third, with junior
Rylan Nakamura delivering the big hit of the inning with a two-out, two-run single to left.
In the fourth, St. Olaf stretched its lead to 7-0 with two more runs. Zak led off the inning with a single, stole second, and got to third on a single by junior
Kyra Narum. Zak and Narum then executed a double steal to allow Zak to score. Two batters later, Yaeger recorded her second RBI single of the game for the final run of the opener.
Ring got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the bottom of the fourth to start a run that saw the senior retire 10 of the final 11 Auggies to come to the plate.
St. Olaf 11, Augsburg 3 (5 inn.) | Box Score
After the teams combined to score eight first-inning runs, St. Olaf outscored Augsburg by a 6-0 margin over the final four innings to complete the sweep with a run-rule victory. After coming with the bases loaded and nobody out with three runs already in in the first, Singleton tossed 5.0 shutout innings, giving up just three hits with one walk and one strikeout in her third win of the season.
Hokanson finished off a 6-for-8 day at the plate by going 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and one RBI. Zak completed her 5-for-7 afternoon with a 2-for-3 game that included a triple, two runs scored, and one stolen base. Senior
Elle Brandt had a home run and a double while driving in five runs.
St. Olaf started the chaotic first inning with five runs in the top of the inning, as four Oles in a row recorded two-out hits, culminating in Brandt's three-run home run that plated the final three runs of the frame. In the bottom of the inning, Augsburg used four walks, a hit batter, and a fielder's choice to score three runs and had the bases loaded with nobody out before Singleton got a pair of line drives to short and a grounder back to the circle to avoid further damage.
The Oles got one of the runs back in the top of the second when Zak scored on a passed ball after singling, getting to second on an error, and moving to third on a bunt single by senior
Belle Schmidt. After Hokanson and Narum started the top of the third with a double and a walk, Brandt doubled them both home to push St. Olaf's lead to 8-3.
St. Olaf added two more runs in the top of the fourth, with the runs scoring on consecutive two-out errors by the Auggies. The Oles got the run they needed to invoke the run rule in the top of the fifth, as Zak led off with a triple and scored on a single by Schmidt before Singleton put up another zero in the home half of the inning.
