Hamline University defeated the St. Thomas softball team in a 6-4 slugfest Saturday at South Field, eliminating the Tommies from the MIAC tournament.
Hamline’s Sydney Fransiscus turned a pitch by Tommie pitcher Sammy Hogan into a home run in the fifth inning, making it a 3-3 ball game, and the Pipers never looked back.
“We just fought back and forth and it was just a matter of who comes out on top,” head coach John Tschida said.
The Tommies (34-9 overall, 18-4 MIAC) started out strong when Brenna Walek drove in Melissa Barry from second base with two outs in the first inning. Hamline (23-14 overall, 16-6 MIAC) pitcher Sarah DeMars had a tough time preventing Tommie batters from making contact, as they tallied up five hits on DeMars before she was taken out the game in the second inning.
“We out hit them,” Tschida said. “Our hitters did what they had to do.”
The Pipers replaced DeMars with Casey Anderson, who pitched the rest of the game. Tommie infielder Elise Barnes batted in Jenna Beeso immediately after Anderson was put in the game, running up St. Thomas’ lead 2-0.
St. Thomas pitcher Jessica Eppenberger found herself in some tough situations with runners on base in the third and fourth innings, but got herself out of it, allowing no runs in her time on the mound.
“Our pitchers battled and did the best they could,” Tschida said.
When Hogan replaced Eppenberger in the fifth inning, the score was 3-0. That’s when Fransiscus hit a three-run homer to tie it up.
The Pipers went on to score three more runs in the game, two in the sixth and one in the seventh, to eventually beat the Tommies 6-4.
“This could be our last time in a uniform together,” Tschida said.
The Tommies now wait for their team name to hopefully be called in the NCAA tournament selection show for an at-large bid. Tschida is confident that his team has done enough to prove that they belong.
“We’ve beat a lot of good teams and we’re conference champs,” he said. “It’s pretty rare that your conference champ doesn’t go.”
Gamiel Hall can be reached at hall0211@stthomas.edu