MINNEAPOLIS -- The Augsburg University softball team ended its season on Thursday, as a St. Olaf College no-hitter propelled the Oles to a 1-0 win over the Auggies in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff "play-in" game.

THE BASICS
SCORES: St. Olaf 1, Augsburg 0
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field
RECORD: Augsburg 22-18 overall, St. Olaf 23-16 overall

HOW IT HAPPENED
• St. Olaf pitcher Julie Graf threw a complete-game no-hitter, striking out 15 of the 27 batters she faced in the game against four walks. After an Auggie threat in the first inning, Graf only allowed three baserunners the rest of the way, allowing just four walks and a hit batter until Taylor Mattice (SR, Woodbury, Minn./Centennial HS) reached base on a fielding error to lead off the bottom of the seventh. She struck out the side in the third and fifth innings.
• Augsburg's biggest threat came in the bottom of the first, when Carly Dropik (JR, Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria HS) reached base on a one-out walk, Morgan Malley (JR, Harmony, Minn./Fillmore Central HS) was hit by a pitch and Samantha Anderson (JR, Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids HS) walked to load the bases. But Dropik was retired at home on an infield grounder, and a strikeout ended the inning.
• Dropik walked, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch in the sixth inning, but was stranded on an infield flyout. In the seventh, pinch runner Sarah Garcia (FY, St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS), running for Mattice, reached third with two outs, but a strikeout ended the game.
• Taking the hard-luck loss in the pitching circle was Anderson, who ended her junior season with a six-strikeout effort, against just one walk and three hits. 

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
• Augsburg finished the regular season with a 22-18 record, its most wins in a single season in softball since the 1992 campaign, when the Auggies went 24-12 overall.
• The loss snapped a season-best seven-game winning streak for the Auggies.
• The game was the final college contests for Augsburg seniors Mattice and Katie Parker (SR, Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North HS).
• Anderson finished her junior season with 131 strikeouts, giving her the top three single-season strikeout totals in Augsburg history -- 157 in 2016, 139 in 2017 and 131 this season. Her 427 career strikeouts are an Augsburg school record.

FOR THE FOES
• St. Olaf scored its lone run in the fourth inning. Kate Arneson led off the inning wih a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a flyout, then scored on a single to right field by Abby Grismer.
• Grismer also had a single in the seventh inning for the Oles' other base hit of the game.
• St. Olaf will face top-seed St. Thomas in its first game of the double-elimination round of the MIAC playoffs on Friday (5/4) at 2:30 p.m. at St. Thomas.