Notables-CSS' second straight UMAC Tournament title and 13th overall-CSS sets single-season program record for home runs (40)-Mizera gets two wins and a save on the day.-The Saints reach 30 wins for the first time since 2012 and seventh time overall
DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica softball team needed to win three games on Saturday to play another day and it did just that, defeating the University of Northwestern in the morning and then taking two from the University of Minnesota Morris to capture the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament championship.
CSS 4, Northwestern 1 The Saints began the day with an elimination game against Northwestern. CSS used a three-run third inning to get past the Eagles.
Northwestern put runners on second and third with no outs, but back-to-back foul outs and a strikeout got the Saints out of a jam.
After the Eagles stranded another runner at third in the top of the third, the Saints got the bats going in the bottom frame as
Nikki Logergren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS (Northern Stars)) doubled in
Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) for the first run of the game. After a
Kara Warren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS) sacrifice fly,
Molly Jazdzewski (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central HS) brought in Logergren to make it 3-0.
Rendi Johnson (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake HS) would homer in the fourth to make it 4-0 and Northwestern got a run in seventh to make the final 4-1.
Mizera got the win, striking out six in five innings and allowing only three hits.
Micah McGuiness (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) was 2-for-3 at the plate.
CSS 6, Minnesota Morris 0 The second game of the day saw the Saints needing to win to force a second championship game. Minnesota Morris needed only one win to capture the title.
The difference in this contest was the Cougars failure to capitalize in scoring situations. Morris stranded 12 runners on base and was 0-for-9 in RBI opportunities, while the Saints were 4-for-7 in RBI opportunities.
CSS got on the board in the bottom of the first when McGuiness came around to score on a Warren single. The Cougars had runners at second and third with one out in the top of the second, but failed to get a run across.
After Morris failed to score a run with runners on second and third in the top of the third, the Saints tacked on another run in the bottom frame when
Emily Schiro (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Armstrong HS) came in to score on a Warren sacrifice fly.
The Cougars loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but Mizera came in and shut the door. In the bottom of the fourth, the Saints got a big two-out, two-run double by Bremer to plate
Cayla Fogle (Oakdale, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran HS) and Jazdzewski and extend the lead to 4-0.
Again Morris stranded runners at second and third in the fifth and the Saints added two more runs in the sixth when Mizera hit a two-run home run to make the final 6-0.
Mizera earned the win in relief as the Saints shuffled back-and-forth with her and Johnson the final 3.1 innings. McGuiness got the start and went 3.2 innings, striking out six in the no decision. Bremer was 2-for-3 with two RBIs at the plate.
CSS 5, Minnesota Morris 1 In the winner-take-all championship game, the Saints got up early and pulled away late to take the championship 5-1.
McGuiness, who also started for the second straight game, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first to open the scoring.
Bremer ripped a double to right center in the second to extend the lead to 2-0. The Cougars cut the lead in half in the third inning on a Molly Olson RBI double.
CSS was held to three hits in the game until the bottom of the sixth when Logergren led off the inning with a home run to left. Later in the inning, the Saints rattled off four straight hits with RBIs coming from
Kasandra McCabe (St. Peter, Minn./St. Peter HS) and Mizera to make it 5-1. Mizera sat the Cougars down in order in the seventh to give the Saints their second straight UMAC Tournament title.
McGuiness earned the win, striking out four in four innings. Mizera picked up the save, not allowing a hit and striking out three in three innings. Bremer was 2-for-3 at the plate with a RBI.
The Saints (31-14) will find out who and where they will play in the NCAA Division III Tournament Monday morning when the selections are announced at 9 a.m. on NCAA.com.
