Notables
- CSS clinches outright UMAC regular season title and will host next weekend's UMAC postseason tournament
- Five seniors recognized on Senior Day: Zwak, Warren, McGuiness, Logergren, and Johnson
- Logergren had a four-hit day, all of them being extra bases (3 2B, 1 HR)
- The Saints have yet to lose to Crown and now hold an all-time series record of 39-0
- The first game score of 3-0 marks the closest Crown has ever been to defeating CSS

DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica softball team closed out its regular season Saturday afternoon after sweeping Crown College at Kenwood Field. The Saints, playing on Senior Day, won the first game by a score of 3-0 and the second game by a score of 10-5.

Game 1: CSS 3, Crown 0
The first game was a pitcher's duel as neither team could score a run after the second inning. The bottom of the first inning would be where the Saints struck first as Maggie Schley (Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) zinged a double down the left-field line to score Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS). That would be the lone run in the first, with the two other runs in the game coming in the bottom of the second.

Those two runs came off of one swing. Chrisi Mizera (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East HS), while being down in the count 1-2, found the pitch she wanted and smashed a home run to deep left-center field. The home run scored Nikki Logergren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS (Northern Stars)) as well, who would have herself a day in the second game of the doubleheader.

Mizera wouldn't just boost the team offensively, however, as she also pitched seven shutout innings from the rubber. She recorded five strikeouts and only allowed seven hits in the victory. The win gave the Saints yet another regular season UMAC championship and another No. 1 seed for the upcoming UMAC tournament.

CSS was held to five hits, its lowest in a victory all season. 

Game 2: CSS 10, Crown 5
Game two would prove to be a bit tougher for CSS. Crown started the game off on all cylinders, scoring a run in each of the first two innings to take an early 2-0 lead. The Saints didn't go away quietly as they tied the game in the bottom half of the second. Rendi Johnson (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake HS) recorded a sac-fly to score Jill Rosby (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Park Center HS ), followed by a Crown error on a Bremer grounder to score Logergren.

Crown put two more up on the scoreboard in the top of the third after a Sofia Palacios single scored both Cassidy Valenzuela and Janelle Williams. The hit would just barely go over second baseman Becca Zwak (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS)'s glove. Once again the Saints answered in the bottom-half of the inning, this time coming off a two-run home run from Logergren. It would be her second hit of the game, having a double in the previous inning.

Yet again Crown retook the lead, scoring one in the fourth to make it 5-4. The Saints answered for a third consecutive inning, this time scoring two after RBIs from Schley and Kara Warren (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS). Micah McGuiness (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS), who took over on the mound for Schley in the fourth, shut down Crown in the fifth inning to maintain the 6-5 lead.

Then McGuiness did her part on the offensive side. With two outs and a two-run lead in the bottom-half of the fifth, McGuiness drilled a three-run home run to right center, blowing the game wide open at a score of 10-5. She then held her ground on the mound for the next two innings, keeping Crown at bay and eventually striking out the final two batters to secure the 10-5 victory for CSS.  

Top Performers
Mizera, Logergren, and McGuiness all had home runs on the day, but it was Logergren alone who sparked the Saints in the consecutive comeback innings during game two. She went 3-for-3 with two doubles to go along with her homer. Mizera did wonders on the mound in game one, going the full distance for another complete-game shutout. McGuiness struck out five in 3.1 innings in relief to earn the game two victory.

Up Next
Up next for the Saints softball team is the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament, which it will host beginning on Thursday at Kenwood Field. It is yet to be determined who will be St. Scholastica's opponent in the opening round of the playoffs. The Saints will play at 4 p.m. on Thursday