ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The third-seeded St. Olaf College softball team fell behind early and went on to see its season end in the semifinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs with a 7-1 loss to second-seeded and eighth-ranked Saint Mary's University on Saturday afternoon at CSB Softball Field.
Saint Mary's (36-5) took advantage of two first-inning errors by St. Olaf (25-15) to score three times and held a 7-0 lead before first year
Hannah Yaeger homered in the sixth for the Oles' lone run of the game. St. Olaf's appearance in the semifinals was its fourth in the last five seasons under the current playoff format.
The loss brought an end to the careers of seniors
Belle Schmidt,
Madyn Singleton,
Abby Nevin,
Elle Brandt, and
Roxanne Ring, who compiled an overall record of 95-65 and a MIAC record of 61-26 during their careers. The seniors helped the Oles to the ninth 25-win season in program history this season and an eighth consecutive berth in the MIAC Playoffs.
Yaeger recorded two of St. Olaf's four hits in the loss, going 2-for-3 with a double and a solo home run. The double was Yaeger's 21st of the season, one shy of the program record set by Emily Carr '19 in 2019. Junior
Regan Zak and first year
Joy Jung had the other two hits, with Zak finishing the season batting a program-record .458.
In her final appearance in the circle as an Ole, Ring threw all 6.0 innings, giving up seven runs (five earned) on 12 hits with one walk and three strikeouts. The senior concluded her career with a 17-7 record in her senior season.
After a 1-2-3 top of the first, Saint Mary's scored three runs while hitting just one ball out of the infield in the bottom of the inning. A four-base throwing error on the second pitch of the game gave the Cardinals the game's first run. Later in the inning, the second run scored on another error and the third came on an infield hit.
Saint Mary's added two more runs to its lead in the bottom of the second to open up a 5-0 lead. St. Olaf got a leadoff double from Yaeger in the fourth but could not get the run around. The Cardinals got a two-out, two-run double from Abbie Stigler in the fifth to extend their lead to 7-0.
With two outs and nobody on in the top of the sixth, Yaeger blasted a 2-1 pitch over the fence and inside the left-field foul pole for the third home run of her standout first season of collegiate softball. Ring pitched around consecutive singles to start the bottom of the sixth and Jung led off the seventh with a single before three consecutive strikeouts ended the game.
This season, St. Olaf set single-season program records in batting average (.334), on-base percentage (.408), RBI (209, tie), walks (135, tie), while finishing second in slugging percentage (.466), runs (235), doubles (86), total bases (515), and stolen bases (67), and third in hits (369) and fielding percentage (.960).
