MINNEAPOLIS -- The Augsburg University softball team improved to 4-0 on the season with its second straight sweep at the Auggie Dome Tournament on Saturday afternoon, scoring wins of 8-0 and 7-3 over Crown College.

THE BASICS
SCORES: Augsburg 8, Crown 0 (6 inn.); Augsburg 7, Crown 3
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field, Minneapolis
RECORDS: Augsburg 4-0 overall, Crown 0-6 overall

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
• Leading 2-0 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, the Auggies sent nine batters to the plate and scored six runs on six hits to end the game early via the NCAA eight-run rule. Augsburg collected 12 hits in the game.
• Pitcher Samantha Anderson (JR, Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids HS) earned her 10th career shutout, striking out nine while walking one and allowing just two hits. She retired the first 12 hitters in a row that she faced, surrendering her first hit to lead off the fifth inning. It's the 16th time Anderson has recorded eight or more strikeouts in her 63 career pitching appearances, including both games she started this weekend.
• RBI singles by Morgan Malley (JR, Harmony, Minn./Fillmore Central HS) and Jacquline Nichols (JR, Royalton, Minn./Royalton HS) gave the Auggies a 2-0 lead in the third inning. In the sixth, Carly Dropik (JR, Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria HS) hit a two-run double, Anderson hit a two-run triple (her first collegiate triple), Nichols hit a run-scoring double and Taylor Mattice (SR, Woodbury, Minn./Centennial HS) ended the game with an RBI single.
• Nichols went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, while Anderson and Nell Gehrke (SO, Northfield, Minn./Northfield HS) had two hits each.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
• A four-run fourth inning broke open the second game, keyed by a two-run homer by Dropik. Mattice led off the inning with a double and scored on a triple by Gehrke. Gehrke scored on an RBI single by Shannon Dale (SO, Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS), leading up to Dropik's two-run blast.
• Augsburg scored single runs in the second, third and sixth innings. Mattice hit a double and scored on an RBI single by Dale in the second, an RBI single by Anderson plated Dropik in the third, and a double by Anesia King (SO, Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti HS) brought home a run in the sixth.
• Mattice went 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored, while King, Dale and Dropik had two hits each.
• Malley pitched her second straight complete-game victory, striking out one.

FOR THE FOES
• Cassidy Valenzuela and Laryssa Vik had hits for the Storm in the first game. Lis King had two hits, including a double, in the second game. 
• King struck out four from the pitching circle in the first game, while Olivia Christopherson had six strikeouts in the second game.

UP NEXT
• Augsburg travels to Arizona for the Tucson Invitational Games, starting next Saturday (3/10). The Auggies will play 10 games in Arizona over a six-day span.