Notables
-Ninth-consecutive regular season title for CSS
-The Saints have now held their opponents to one or no runs in 11 games this year
-CSS will host the UMAC Tournament beginning Thursday
-The Saints fell to Crown for the first time in program history (40-1)
ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. (
csssaints.com) – The College of St. Scholastica softball team notched their ninth consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season championship after splitting a pair of games Saturday afternoon against second place Crown College. The Saints, who have now earned home-field advantage and will host the conference tournament, took care of business right away by winning 7-1 in game one before falling for the first time ever to Crown in game two 5-4.
Game 1: CSS 7, Crown 1
The Saints sent
Chrisi Mizera (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East HS) to the mound for game one, hoping to clinch the conference title outright with a win to start the doubleheader. It was Crown, however, who struck first off a Cassidy Valenzuela single to left field in the bottom of the first inning to make the score 1-0.
CSS bounced back in the top of the second with two runs of their own.
Toni Bishop (Roseville, Minn./Roseville HS) singled through the left side of the infield to score
Maggie Schley (Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) and even things up at 1-1. Later that inning,
Cindi Rydlund (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) doubled to left field to bring home Bishop and give the Saints a 2-1 lead.
After a scoreless third, the Saints tacked two more on in the top of the fourth.
Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) plated Bishop after doubling to right center, which advanced
Jena O'Byrne (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville HS) to third.
Olivia Bretting (Ashland, Wis. /Ashland HS ) then stepped into the batter's box and singled home O'Byrne to make the score 4-1.
Hannah Borgeson (Woodville, Wis./Baldwin-Woodville HS) flied out to right field in the sixth inning, allowing Bremer to tag from third and extend the Saints lead to 5-1. Rydlund and Bremer yet again drove home runs in the top of the seventh inning, providing two more insurance runs for Mizera as she stepped on the rubber in the bottom of the seventh with a 7-1 lead.
Mizera was nearly perfect after giving up the one-run inning to Crown in the first, pitching six scoreless innings while only allowing five hits. She also recorded two strikeouts in the victory. Bremer led the way offensively, going 3-for-5 from the plate with two RBIs, a run scored, and a stolen base. Bishop went perfect from the plate, going 3-for-3 and walking once.
Game 2: Crown 5, CSS 4
With the conference championship clinched, the Saints could relax a bit more heading into game two of the doubleheader. They may have eased up too much, however, as they allowed three runs to Crown in the bottom of the first inning. Before the three-run effort from Crown, the Saints scored one of their own in the top half of the inning with a Bishop sacrifice bunt that scored Bretting.
Crown scored yet another run in the bottom of the second to stretch their lead to 4-1, this time coming off a fielder's choice that allowed Janelle Williams to score from third. The Saints answered in the top of the third, scoring two runs to bring them back to within one run. The first run of the third was plated yet again by Bishop, who recorded her second RBI of the game off a single to left field that scored Bremer. Schley then reached on a fielder's choice of her own that allowed Bretting to score for the second time in the game.
The one-run deficit would be short lived, though, as Crown managed to punch another run across in the third inning themselves to make the score 5-3 in favor of the home team. Bremer knocked home O'Byrne in the top of the fourth to bring the Saints back to within one, but that would be the last run scored in the game as the Saints fell to Crown by a final score of 5-4. The victory over CSS marks the first in program history for the Storm and also snaps a 40-game losing streak they had suffered in the head-to-head matchup.
Lis King earned the win for the Storm while
Vanessa Kohl (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) took the loss for the Saints, despite the Saints outhitting the Storm 10-7. Both pitchers gave up four earned runs in the contest. Borgeson and Bretting led the way for the Saints from a hitting perspective as Borgeson went 3-for-4 and Bretting went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.
St. Ben's DH Canceled -- Up Next: UMAC Tournament
The scheduled doubleheader against the College of Saint Benedict on Sunday afternoon is now canceled, meaning the next action for CSS is the conference tournament beginning on Thursday. The Saints will host the tournament at Kenwood Field and will be the top seed. Crown College will be coming in as the second seed despite finishing with the same conference record as the University of Northwestern (12-4) thanks to a sweep over the Eagles earlier this year. The last two teams to make the tournament are the University of Wisconsin-Superior and Bethany Lutheran College.
