Softball 5/4/06 -- St. Olaf 9-2, Augsburg 1-4 (1st game 5 innings)

GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE


NORTHFIELD, Minn. (5/4/06) -- Head coach Carol Enke finished her Augsburg College coaching career with a victory, as the Auggies split a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference softball doubleheader with St. Olaf College on Thursday at the Oles' Mabel Shirley Field. St. Olaf won the first game 9-1 in five innings, but Augsburg won the second game 4-2.

Augsburg finished its season 16-22 overall, 9-13 in MIAC play. Enke, only the second head coach in the 32-season history of Augsburg softball, is resigning her coaching position at the end of this season after 21 years as the Auggies' mentor. She finished her Augsburg coaching career at 302-426-3.

The doubleheader was rescheduled for Thursday after it was postponed by rain on Saturday. St. Olaf finishes its season 14-24 overall, 8-14 in MIAC play.

Audra Thimmesch-Gill (Sr., St. Paul, Minn./Central HS), one of three Auggie seniors playing in their last games, hit a solo home run -- the first of her collegiate career -- in the fifth inning of the second game, providing the eventual game-winning run.

Sarah Green (Fr., Winnebago, Minn./Blue Earth Area HS) struck out five while allowing just five hits and walking one in the complete-game victory in the second contest, while going 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored at the plate.

Back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Green and Ashley Westerman (So., Bemidji, Minn.) gave the Auggies a 2-0 lead in the first inning. After St. Olaf cut the lead to 2-1 on an RBI double by Maggie Roscher in the fourth inning, Augsburg expanded its lead in the fifth, as Thimmesch-Gill hit a solo homer to lead off the inning, and Tiffany Magnuson (Fr., Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy HS) doubled and came home on an RBI single by Green.

St. Olaf scored another run in the fifth, but stranded two runners on base in the sixth and one runner in the seventh to finish the game.

Jolene Ross (So., Arden Hills, Minn./Mounds View HS) and Trista Gundersen (Jr., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) had two hits apiece for the Auggies, while Roscher had two hits for St. Olaf. Laura Torgerson struck out four in a complete-game effort for the Oles.

In the first game, a five-run second inning and three-run fifth inning gave the Oles the victory, shortened to five innings by the NCAA eight-run rule.

After a Lindsay Weier RBI single in the first inning, an RBI double by Christina Sampson and two-run singles by Emily Henning and Kate Schulz capped the five-run second inning for the Oles.

Augsburg scored in the fourth on a Jacci Mattern (Fr., Lakeville, Minn.) double and a run-scoring single by Green, but St. Olaf capped the game with three runs in the fifth. Weier led off the inning with a triple and scored on a Schulz groundout. A two-run double by Sampson gave the Oles the eight-run advantage to end the game early.

Henning, Weier and Sampson had two hits each, with Sampson and Schulz driving in three runs and Henning driving in two. Green was 2-for-2 at the plate for the Auggies.

Augsburg starter Shelley Harris (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Southwest HS) struck out one in an inning-and-a-third in her final collegiate game, with Kati Tweeten (Jr., Spring Grove, Minn.) pitching in relief. Bekki Hagen struck out two in five innings of work for the Oles.