MINNEAPOLIS – The Augsburg University softball team rallied from a 9-1, third-inning deficit to force extra innings in the second game, but Saint Mary's used a two-run homer in the eighth inning to score a 12-11 victory and a sweep of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader on Thursday afternoon, ending the Auggies' 2023 season at 20-20 overall.

THE BASICS
SCORES: Saint Mary's 11, Augsburg 3 (5 innings); Saint Mary's 12, Augsburg 11 (8 innings)
LOCATION: Edor Nelson Field, Minneapolis
RECORD: Augsburg 20-20 overall (6-16 MIAC), Saint Mary's 20-16 overall (12-8 MIAC)

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
• Saint Mary's scored seven runs in the second inning, sending 11 batters to the plate, and scored another four runs in the fifth inning to end the game early via the NCAA eight-run rule.
• Olivia Hennager (FY, Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley HS) gave the Auggies a 1-0 lead in the first inning, driving in Torrie Rehder (SO, Goodhue, Minn./Goodhue HS) on a one-out single.
• A bases-loaded walk and an RBI groundout by Zoie Johnson (SO, Carlton, Minn./Esko HS) gave the Auggies a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.
• Rehder scored two runs for the Auggies in the game.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
• Augsburg trailed 9-1 entering the bottom of the third inning, but rallied back with four runs in the bottom of the third, four runs in the fourth and a run in the fifth to take a 10-9 lead. The Cardinals tied the game with a run in the top of the seventh, and took the lead with a two-run homer by Riley Hall in the top of the eighth. Augsburg scored a run in the bottom of the eighth, but could not get the tying run across.
• Johnson put the Auggies on the board in the bottom of the first inning, driving in Rehder on a single to right field.
• In the third, Johnson hit a two-run, ground-rule double to center, bringing in Rehder and Katie Manecke (JR, Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS), and Libby Moore (SO, Springville, Iowa/Springville HS) and Jayden Evenson (FY, Mosinee, Wis./Mosinee HS) followed with run-scoring singles, driving in Hennager and Johnson.
• Rehder led off the fourth inning with a triple, and scored on a double by Hennager. A walk and single loaded the bases, and Olivia Dynneson (JR, Minneapolis, Minn./South HS) cleared them with a three-run double to left.
• Moore gave the Auggies the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth, plating Rehder.
• Augsburg stranded 12 runners in the game, including two runners in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. The Auggies had runners at the corners with one out in the bottom of the eighth, and Hennager hit a single to bring in Evenson. Running from first, Manecke was tagged out trying to stretch to third base, ending the game.
• Leadoff hitter Rehder tied a single-game school record with a 5-for-6 effort at the plate, also tying a single-game school record with four runs. Her five-hit effort tied a record previously set by Juli Gustafson in a 1991 game, and her four runs tied a record set seven times previously in Augsburg softball history.
• Hennager and Moore had three hits each, and Kayla Hanson (SR, St. James, Minn./St. James HS), Johnson and Dynneson had two hits each.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
• The game was the final collegiate contest for three Augsburg seniors -- Hanson, Sammie Balint (SR, Golden Valley, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) and Saryn Sherrell (SR, Minneapolis, Minn./South HS).

FOR THE FOES
• Heather Nordlund hit a solo home run in the first game for Saint Mary's.
• Hall went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two RBI in the second game.