MINNEAPOLIS -- A pair of pitching gems, combined with some clutch hitting, led the Augsburg University softball team to a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season-opening sweep of Concordia College-Moorhead on Saturday afternoon.

THE BASICS
SCORES: Augsburg 3, Concordia-Moorhead 1; Augsburg 8, Concordia-Moorhead 0 (5 inn.)
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field, Minneapolis
RECORD: Augsburg 10-8 overall (2-0 MIAC), Concordia-Moorhead 7-9 overall (0-2 MIAC)

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
• Sam Anderson (SR, Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids HS) pitched an incredible game to pick up the first-game win for Augsburg, recording a career-high 16 strikeouts while only walking one and allowing just two hits. Of her 97 pitches in the game, 75 were strikes, and she had to face just 25 batters in the game -- four over the minimum 21 necessary in a seven-inning game. It was the ninth double-digit strikeout effort of her career.
• Jacquline Nichols (SR, Royalton, Minn./Royalton HS) led off the second inning with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a wild pitch. In the third, Anderson hit a two-out single, and she scored from first on a double to right-center by Nichols.
• The Cobbers cut into the Auggie lead with a run in the top of the fifth, but the Auggies gained the run back in the bottom of the frame. Anesia King (JR, Isanti, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti HS) hit a double and eventually scored on a two-out bases-loaded walk.
• In addition to Nichols' two hits and King's and Anderson's hits, Sarah Garcia (SO, St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) also had a base hit for the Auggies.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
• The second game was bouyed by an impressive complete-game pitching effort by Elly Strunk (SO, Blooming Prairie, Minn./Blooming Prairie HS), who struck out five while walking two and allowing just two hits in the game, shortened to five innings due to the NCAA eight-run rule. She faced just 19 Cobber batters and had 47 strikes among her 68 pitches in the game.
• Leading 1-0 after three innings, Augsburg scored seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings to end the game early. An RBI single by Kayla Hanson (FY, Trimont, Minn./St. James HS) and two-run double by Nell Gehrke (JR, Northfield, Minn./Northfield HS) gave the Auggies three runs in the fourth.
• In the fifth, Hollywood Hermanson (JR, Dover, Minn./Dover-Eyota HS) hit a solo home run, King hit a two-run triple, then scored the final run on a sacrifice fly by Gehrke.
• An Anderson RBI single plated King with the opening run of the game in the first inning.
• King, Anderson and Hermanson had two hits each for the Auggies in the second game, while Hanson, King and Kate Stehr (JR, Goodhue, Minn./Goodhue HS) scored two runs each.

FOR THE FOES
• Megan Gavin pitched nine innings for Concordia in the doubleheader, striking out 11 while walking four in the first game, and striking out two while not walking a batter in three innings in the second game.
• Madison Kostelecky and Kate Wensloff hit doubles for Concordia in the first game. Callie Ahlgren hit a double and Maria Pake had a single in the second game.

UP NEXT
• Augsburg faces Carleton in a MIAC doubleheader on Sunday (3/31) at 3:15 p.m. at Edor Nelson Field.
• Concordia travels to face Gustavus in a MIAC doubleheader on Sunday at 1 p.m.