Notables -Loss to Morris was first postseason home loss since 2002-Morris was also the last team to defeat the Saints in the UMAC Tournament, eliminating them in 2013.-CSS will have to win three games in one day tomorrow. It last did it at home on April 14, 2012
DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica softball team split a pair of UMAC tournament games first defeating Crown College 8-0, then falling to the University of Minnesota Morris 4-1 Friday at Kenwood Field.
Game 1: CSS 8 Crown 0 (F/5)It was all CSS from the word go in game one. The top ranked Saints made quick work of Crown College scoring six runs in the first inning on the way to an 8-0 shutout victory.
Kara Warren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS) plated the first two runs of the game in the six run first inning with a towering two run home run, scoring
Nikki Logergren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS (Northern Stars)) and propelling CSS to a quick 2-0 lead.
Kasandra McCabe (St. Peter, Minn./St. Peter HS) would follow with an RBI double that scored
Molly Jazdzewski (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central HS) to make the score 3-0 Saints, and was followed up by a
Rendi Johnson (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake HS) two run home run for the second two run blast of the inning to set CSS on top 5-0.
Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) would cap the inning in which the Saints batted around the order with an RBI single that scored
Carley Henning (Mazeppa, Minn./Zumbrota-Mazeppa HS) and capped off a 6-0 start for the Saints.
Bremer would again drive in a run, this time unearned, on a third inning dropped fly ball by a Crown fielder to make the score 7-0 Saints.
CSS would get its eighth and final run of the game when Johnson blasted her second home run of the game, this time a solo home run, in the fifth inning implementing the mercy rule and securing an 8-0 victory for the Saints in game one of the UMAC tournament.
Logergren, McCabe, Johnson, and Henning would all finish with two hits for the Saints and collectively drove in four of the Saints eight runs.
Micah McGuiness (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) got the win on the mound for the Saints pitching a complete game one hitter with seven strikeouts.
Game 2: UMM 4 CSS 1It was a heartbreaker for the Saints as they carried a 1-0 lead into the sixth and proceeded to give up four runs to fall to the University of Minnesota-Morris 4-1 in game two.
The Saints lone run came in the third inning when Logergren would drive in Emily Shiro with an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead.
That lead would hold all the way through until the sixth inning with no real threat to CSS before then. The Saints did have an opportunity to score a run in the bottom of the fourth inning with a runner on third and one out, but an unorthodox 5-2-6-4 double play bailed the Cougars out of the inning with a Saints runner getting thrown out at home.
Morris began the four run sixth inning with five straight hits scoring four runs to take a 4-1 lead on CSS. Before that inning they had only managed two hits off of Saints pitcher
Chrisi Mizera (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East HS), who ended her day with a complete game loss allowing four runs on seven hits and striking out nine.
CSS did muster a few baserunners in the bottom of the seventh inning in an effort to mount a comeback, but came up short as they fell in game two 4-1.
The Saints ended the game with just four hits offensively. Schiro, Logergren, McCabe, and Bremer accounted for the CSS hits.
CSS (28-14, 21-0 UMAC) will play again tomorrow in UMAC tournament play when they take on the University of Northwestern at 10 a.m. on Kenwood Field in an elimination game. The winner plays Minnesota Morris at noon in the championship.
