NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College softball team locked up the No. 3 seed in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs and claimed its sixth conference sweep in a row with 12-5 and 2-1 victories over crosstown-rival Carleton College on Friday afternoon at Ele Hansen Field.
Seniors
Roxanne Ring and
Madyn Singleton each tossed a complete game to lead St. Olaf (24-14, 17-5 MIAC) past Carleton (20-16, 10-10 MIAC) in the final games of the regular season for the Oles. The sweep secured a top-three seed for the Oles for the fifth time in the last six seasons and, in tandem with other results in the conference, pushed the Knights to the outside looking in for a spot in the six-team field. Carleton has two MIAC games remaining.
St. Olaf has won 16 of the last 17 meetings against its crosstown rival dating back to the second game of a doubleheader in 2017.
As the No. 3 seed, the Oles will host the No. 6 seed in the opening round on Thursday, May 7 at 4:30 p.m. at Mabel Shirley Field. St. Olaf will await the outcomes of games on Saturday, May 2 to find out who its opponent will be.
St. Olaf 12, Carleton 5 | Box Score
St. Olaf scored at least one run in six of its seven innings at the plate to take the opener, which included 24 combined hits and six errors. Ring went the distance in the circle for the Oles for the 14th time this season, improving to 16-6 in the process.
Senior
Belle Schmidt and first year
Hannah Yaeger both recorded three-hit performances to lead the way offensively for St. Olaf. Schmidt was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored, while Yaeger was 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored, and two RBI. Junior
Regan Zak was 1-for-2 with three walks, three stolen bases, and four runs scored, while junior
Eva Hokanson was 2-for-4 with four RBI.
The Oles capitalized on an error by the Knights to score two runs in the top of the first. After Zak walked and stole second, Yaeger singled up the middle to score Zak and got to third on a throwing error on the play. Two batters later, Yaeger came in to score on a two-out wild pitch, but Carleton scored two runs of its own in the bottom of the inning to quickly tie it up.
A Hokanson sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and one out in the third gave the Oles the lead again, and junior
Kyra Narum added to the lead with a two-out, run-scoring single in the fourth. After the Knights got back within one in the bottom of the fourth, St. Olaf scored three times in the fifth to open up a 7-3 lead, with Hokanson and first year
Ellia Blakey providing RBI singles in the frame.
Carleton got within two runs at 7-5 after five innings before the Oles put together another three-run inning in the top of the sixth. After Zak and Schmidt started the inning with back-to-back singles, Hokanson doubled them both in with one out before Ring added an RBI single later on. Yaeger doubled in the final runs of the game in the top of the seventh, scoring Zak and Schmidt with a one-out liner to right center.
St. Olaf 2, Carleton 1 | Box Score
Singleton worked in and out of trouble in her third complete game of the season in game two, holding the Knights to 3-for-20 hitting with runners on base. Singleton outdueled Sydney Trentman in the complete game, holding the hosts scoreless until the final half inning.
Singleton moved to 7-5 on the season after allowing one run on six hits with five walks and two strikeouts. Trentman took the loss despite giving up just two runs on eight hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Schmidt and Hokanson accounted for half of St. Olaf's hits, with Hokanson going 2-for-3 with two RBI and Schmidt going 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Hokanson put an early run on the board for the Oles with a two-out single that scored Schmidt from second in the first. The junior added another RBI single in the top of the third, singling through the right side to score Zak after singles by Zak and Yaeger left runners on first and third with one out.
Singleton stranded two Knights on base in each of the first three innings and again in the sixth by leaving Carleton runners at second and third in a 2-0 game. In the bottom of the seventh, back-to-back walks with two outs followed by an RBI single by Gloria Galindo got Carleton on the board. Prior to Galindo's hit, the Knights were 2-for-18 with runners on base in the game.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Emily Vogel drove one over the fence but foul down the left-field line. On the next pitch, Singleton got Vogel to ground one back to the circle for the final out.
