GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE

ROSEMOUNT, Minn. – Jessa Hinz (SR, Richfield, Minn.) led off each game of the doubleheader with a home run, and Kylee Persing (JR, Mound, Minn./Mound-Westonka HS) pitched both wins and went 5-for-7 at the plate, as Augsburg College opened its 2011 softball season with a sweep of the University of Wisconsin-Stout on Wednesday afternoon at the Irish Sports Dome.

Augsburg (2-0) topped Wisconsin-Stout (3-3) 5-3 in the opener and 12-6 in the second game, pounding out 24 hits, including five home runs and two doubles, in the doubleheader.

Persing struck out six while walking two to pick up the first-game victory, while striking out two while walking two in a complete-game effort in the second game. She helped her own cause at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored in the first game, while going 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored in the second game.

Hinz led off the first game with a homer for the Auggies, and the Auggies scored another run in the second inning, as Persing singled and came around to score after a wild throw following a sacrifice bunt. In the fourth inning, Persing homered and two more runs came across following Wisconsin-Stout fielding errors.

The Blue Devils scored in the fifth inning, as an infield single by Alison Gray (SO, St. Cloud, Minn./Apollo HS) plated a run. Wisconsin-Stout had a final threat in the bottom of the seventh, with a bases-loaded walk and an RBI single by Hannah Sweet (FY, Elk River, Minn.), but the Blue Devils left the bases loaded to end the game.

The second game was a slugfest, as the teams combined for 18 runs and 28 hits – 17 by Augsburg, 11 by Wisconsin-Stout. Each team led off their first at-bats with a home run, as Shanen Stainer (FY, Menomonie, Wis.) led off the game with a homer for the Blue Devils, and Hinz homered to lead off the bottom of the first with her second homer of the doubleheader for the Auggies.

A four-run first inning gave the Auggies the lead, paced by Hinz's homer, two runs coming across on a two-error play, and an RBI single by Stephanie Saxe (JR, Stacy, Minn./North Branch HS). Jennifer Castillo (SR, Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn HS) hit a two-run homer in the second inning, and Kelsey Rorabeck (SO, Hudson, Wis./Somerset HS) hit a solo homer in the third inning.

The Blue Devils stayed in the game, scoring a run in the third inning and three runs in the fourth – on a two-run single by Jessica Behnke (FY, Bruce, Wis.) and a sacrifice fly by Stainer – to cut the lead to 7-6.

But Augsburg clinched the second-game win with five runs in their final three innings of work. Persing led off the fourth inning with a single and came across on an RBI single by Rorabeck, a two-run double by Persing in the fifth expanded the lead, and in the sixth, an RBI double by Bri Dorale (SO, Ramsey, Minn./Anoka HS) and a run-scoring single by Castillo capped the Auggie scoring.

Rorabeck went 4-for-6 with two runs scored in the doubleheader, while Dorale went 5-for-8 with four runs scored. Saxe had three hits in the doubleheader, and Allison Ruedy (SO, Waseca, Minn.), Castillo and Hinz had two hits each.

For Wisconsin-Stout, Gray had four hits in the doubleheader, while Stainer, Sweet and Allison Gray (SO, St. Cloud, Minn./Apollo HS) had three hits each.

Augsburg hosts a four-team tournament indoors at Edor Nelson Field this weekend, with the Auggies hosting Wisconsin-La Crosse on Friday (3/4) at 7 p.m. and Luther (Iowa) on Saturday (3/5) at 5 p.m.