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Senior Cassie Smith’s strong pitching performances led the St. Thomas softball team (18-4, 4-0 MIAC) to a 9-1, 6-5 home sweep Saturday, April 2, over Carleton (3-13, 0-2 MIAC) in the team’s season home opener.

Smith closed out both games for the Tommies, forcing a one-two-three inning to end the game in their first contest and striking out four batters in four innings to finish the second. Smith gave up no runs in either game and tallied her fifth win of the season.

Although Smith and the Tommies swept Carelton, coach John Tschida said he was not happy with his team’s performance.

“We played terrible,” Tschida said. “I don’t care about wins or losses, I care about if we play at our level, and that’s mentally, emotionally and physically. We didn’t play up to our level.”

The Tommies packed on the runs early in their first game, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on RBI doubles from freshmen Jenna Hoffman and Erin Mussett. St. Thomas added a run in the fourth inning when Hoffman grounded out to second, scoring freshman Maria McQuillan.

“We swing with power,” senior Sydney Marquardt said. “We hit a lot of doubles, and everyone can hit all the way through the lineup.”

Marquardt provided a glimpse of that power in the fifth inning, homering to right field on a three-run blast. The Tommies continued to drive the ball in the sixth inning, scoring three more runs to end the game with the eight-run rule. Senior Becky Eischens went 3-4 from the plate with two RBIs and one run.

“We can hit with anyone in the country,” Tschida said. “We’ll be one of the top hitting teams by the end of the year. We play really relaxed because we know we can manufacture runs.”

Senior Biz Sitzmann pitched five innings and gave up no earned runs en route to her sixth victory of the season. Carelton’s lone run was a result of a St. Thomas error.

“To me, it seemed like mentally the kids who made the errors weren’t quite as prepared,” Tschida said. “Actually the second game we made some adjustments, and that’s OK. They’ll be back in the starting lineup, but some days kids are in a fog.

“Usually on a team like that, you’re stuck. But on this team because of our depth we’ll just put somebody else in. The kids get hungry and then they want to play well again.”

He said the next practice will be a good one because “our kids have enough pride that they don’t play that way.”

Game two: Tommies withstand Ramey’s hot bat

With a new look to the lineup, the Tommies started the second game of their double-header trailing Carleton 1-0 after Jenny Ramey hit a solo home run in the first inning. In the bottom half of the inning, St. Thomas fought back, scoring three runs of its own. Sophomore Megan Sitek hit a double that brought in two runs, and she also stole third base. She later scored on an error.

After scoring a run in the second inning, the Tommies led Carleton 3-1, but Ramey came through for the Knights again, this time sending a fastball over the fence to bring in three runs. Ramey finished the game 2-3 with two home runs, four RBIs and a walk.

“Give them credit, they played very well,” Tschida said. “Their pitchers threw strikes, the kids made some great plays and their top players performed.”

After giving up her second home run of the game, junior pitcher Kristen Feisel was replaced by Smith. Feisel lasted three innings, giving up four runs on two hits and walking three batters.

“With [Feisel] it’s a lot of mechanics,” Tschida said. “She started the game off with pretty good mechanics and then all of a sudden she lost it.”

Tied 4-4, St. Thomas responded by loading the bases on three singles in the third inning. After a wild pitch, Hoffman took home, and the Tommies added another run off junior Kayla Boward’s RBI squeeze bunt. Carleton tacked on a run in the sixth inning, scoring off a wild pitch, but Smith recovered and held the Knights scoreless the rest of the way.

“This is her best outing of the year. She’s been inconsistent a little bit,” Tschida said. “Today, we weren’t able to use all of the pitches that she has … but she did the best she can.”

He added, “She had a drop ball fastball, and she threw that for strikes better then she has all year.”

This season’s Tommies are without an All-American ace on their pitching staff for the first time in years. With no clear-cut number one, Smith said she hopes she can emerge as the leader.

“I’d love to be the go-to pitcher,” Smith said. “Our pitching staff is really right there, it just has to work out some mechanical things. I think we could have a lot of people to count on in big games, but I would definitely love to step up and work on developing those other two pitches to kind of keep the batters at bay.”

St. Thomas will face Augsburg Tuesday, April 5, on the road.

“I’ve heard good things that they’re going to have a good team this year,” Smith said. “I just want to come at them.”

Ryan Shaver can be reached at shav7005@stthomas.edu.