Notables
- Before her two-run single, Cremers had one run batted in (RBI) on the season
- Bremer kept her batting average above the .500 mark on the season with a 3-for-4 outing
- Bremer became the fourth player in program history to record 200 career hits
- The Saints have now won the first round of the UMAC Tournament five consecutive years
DULUTH, Minn. (
csssaints.com) – After waiting patiently through the first two games at Kenwood Field, No. 1 seeded St. Scholastica took to its home field for its first game of the 2018 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament. The Saints took on the winner of the first game of the day in Crown College, who defeated Bethany Lutheran in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup. The Saints showed they deserved the one seed, taking down Crown by a score of 5-4 in a late rally to advance to day two undefeated in the double-elimination tournament.
The Action
After Crown took an exciting game one victory over the Bethany Lutheran Vikings by a score of 3-2 they battled it out with the Saints in the third game of the four-game day.
Vanessa Kohl (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS), who has been on a winning streak as of late, was given the ball to start things off on the mound for the Saints. She ran into a bit of trouble early with runners on second and third with one out, but good defensive play from the Saints kept the game scoreless in the top of the first.
Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) led things off in the bottom half of the inning with a single to left field, then quickly followed that up with a stolen base as she stood on second with no one out. Later in the inning with two outs and Bremer still on second,
Maggie Schley (Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) delivered a single to knock in Bremer and give the Saints the early 1-0 lead.
The top of the second was a rough one for Kohl, who threw two wild pitches that resulted in a run scoring for the Storm to tie things up at 1-1. The Saints followed up the first inning with a 1-2-3 outing in the bottom half of the second, keeping the game tied heading into the third inning of play. Kohl bounced back with a 1-2-3 inning of her own, but CSS left two runners on base during their turn at the plate in the inning to enter the fourth inning at 1-1.
Olivia Dols kicked off the Storm's fourth inning with a double to right center, then advanced to third on a wild pitch from Kohl. Moments later, a ground ball was hit towards Schley and Crown's Dols took off for home. Schley relayed it to
Toni Bishop (Roseville, Minn./Roseville HS) at home to tag out Dols and keep the game tied. Another wild pitch would put Kohl in trouble again as runners would advance to second and third, but once again she worked out of the jam with a five-pitch strikeout to end the inning.
St. Scholastica managed to earn a base runner in the bottom half of the fourth when
Madison Harris (Billings, Mont./Billings West HS) reached on a dropped fly ball, but first base would be all the farther she'd make it as the next two Saints went down to keep the game at 1-1.
The fifth was quite uneventful for everyone, but the pitchers as both Kohl and Crown's Kailee Leathers put together 1-2-3 innings to advance the game into the sixth inning. In the top of the sixth Crown took its first lead of the game. With back to back singles already occurring, Leathers came to the plate with one out and singled up the middle to knock in teammate Lottie Ellis. Kohl retired the next two Storm batters however, only allowing the one run to score.
With little time to make a move, the Saints needed the bats to come around in the bottom of the sixth. After a
Cindi Rydlund (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) fly out to left field, Schley sparked the CSS dugout with a one-out single to center field. Bishop then followed up Schley's single with one of her own to advance
Ellie Haney (Maple Lake, Minn./Maple Lake HS), who came in as a pinch runner for Schley, to second base. Harris then walked in a five-pitch at bat to load the bases for
Josie Fourre (Albany, Minn./Albany HS).
Fourre, who recorded a walk-off single in the regular season against Crown, provided a run in another crunch-time situation as she grounded out to second base and scored Haney in the process to make the game 2-2. With runners now on second and third,
Arianna Cremers (Cold Spring, Minn./ROCORI HS) came in to pinch hit with two outs in the tie ball game. On the very first pitch of the at bat, Cremers singled to center field and scored two CSS baserunners to put St. Scholastica in front 4-2.
The Saints weren't done.
Megan Hautajarvi (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Denfeld HS) singled to right field to put two runners on for Bremer. The senior shortstop added to the lead two pitches later with a single up the middle to plate the fourth run of the inning. A rundown would occur on the throw in from the outfield however, causing the Saints to end the inning early and head to the seventh with a 5-2 lead.
It turns out Bremer's RBI single was needed as Crown scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to fall just short of a comeback. Three singles and a walk were given up by Kohl, but not the win as she secured it herself by fielding the last groundball and relaying it over to Fourre at first for the final out of the game.
The Saints were led offensively by
Alexa Bremer (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) and
Maggie Schley (Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) who went 3-for-4 and 2-for-3, respectively. Each also batted in a run, matching the total runs batted in by
Arianna Cremers (Cold Spring, Minn./ROCORI HS) with her clutch at bat in the sixth.
Vanessa Kohl (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) picked up the win, advancing to 8-5 on the year with three strikeouts.
For Crown, Lottie Ellis shined in the batter's box with a 2-for-3 day at the plate and two RBIs. Leathers took the loss, falling to 1-4 on the year with two strikeouts in her five and one-third innings of work.
Up Next
The Saints (21-11) will take on the University of Northwestern (Minn.), who beat the University of Wisconsin-Superior to advance in the winner's bracket, at noon at Kenwood Field on Friday. The winner of the game will advance to the tournament championship on Saturday, while the loser will have another game at 4 p.m. against the winner of Bethany Lutheran vs. Crown.
