University of St. Thomas Athletics
39-6
Augustana (Ill.)
35-12
Softball wins twice, on to Super Regional
5/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
No. 13-ranked St. Thomas won the four-team Cedar Rapids Division III softball regional the hard way. The Tommies (40-6) beat Augustana (Ill.) twice on Sunday -- 5-4 in nine innings, and 10-7.
Sunday's sweep capped a 4-0 run through the losers' bracket, and sends UST into next Friday-Saturday's best-of-three Super Regional on the road at unranked North Central (Ill.). Game one is 4 p.m. on Friday.
The Tommies also recorded a 40-win season for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons.
North Central (32-11) won the Pella, Iowa, regional, topping Luther 6-2 on Sunday. UST lost 4-3 to North Central on March 24 on the Florida spring trip.
Coach John Tschida's Tommies used five pitchers to win the four elimination games on Saturday and Sunday. They were in a hole after dropping the opener 7-1 to Augustana on Friday.
In Sunday's first game, UST was down to its last three outs before Jenna Hoffman's solo home run in the last of the seventh inning tied the score 4-4. Bianca Peterson's one-out walkoff single plated Meg DuPuis with the game winner in the ninth inning.
The second game had a three-hour lightning and rain delay after UST had built a 5-1 lead after two innings. Peterson's two-run home run and Emily Gregory's solo homer helped St. Thomas build a 10-2 advantage. Augustana (35-13) used a two-out grand slam in the sixth inning to pull within three runs, but never got closer.
Breezy Bannon pitched into the fourth inning and took the mound win in game two for the second day in a row. Hoffman and Kristin Bigelbach each had three hits in game two, while Gregory and Peterson each had two hits and two RBI. Kendra Bowe worked a scoreless seventh inning to close out the win.
Hoffman's clutch home run in her 5-for-9 Sunday (three RBI, three runs) led to her selection as regional tourney Most Outstanding Player. She joined Gregory, Erin Mussett and DuPuis on the All-Tournament team. Over the five games, Gregory was 7-for-18 with six RBI and five runs; Hoffman was 7-for-19 with four runs and two sacrifices; Mussett was 3-for-13 with six RBI; and DuPuis was 5-for-12 with four RBI.
Sunday Game 1 box:
http://www.coeathletics.com/SIDHelp/fullBoxScores/3175.php
Sunday Game 2 box:
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bowe, Kendra (22-6)
L: Sarah Hintz (19-5)
Batting:
HR: Laura Behnke 1 ; Jaime Rehmert 1
RBI: Laura Behnke 1 ; Jaime Rehmert 1 ; Sarah Hintz 2
SH: Jennifer Gray 1 ; Chelsea Lavin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Laura Behnke 1 ; Jaime Rehmert 1 ; Cassie Saufley 1 ; Jennifer Gray 1
CS: Jenna Teson 1
Batting:
2B: Bigelbach, Kirstin 1
HR: Hoffman, Jenna 1
RBI: Hoffman, Jenna 2 ; Peterson, Bianca 1 ; Mcquillan, Maria 1 ; Meg DuPuis 1
SH: Hoffman, Jenna 1
SF: Meg DuPuis 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hoffman, Jenna 1 ; Wergin, McKensie 1 ; Rentz, Mary 2 ; Meg DuPuis 1
SB: Wergin, McKensie 1 ; Rentz, Mary 1
HBP: Peterson, Bianca 1
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
