WINONA, Minn. — Gustavus got the better of St. Thomas during the regular season, ending the Tommies’ five-year reign as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season champion.
In the post-season, however, the Gusties couldn’t make it a clean sweep, as St. Thomas raced out to a 4-0 lead and held off a late GAC rally en route to a 4-3 victory Saturday — and the MIAC Tournament championship Saturday at Saint Mary’s University.
With the victory, UST — which had already beaten GAC once during the two-day, double-elimination tournament with a 4-1 victory on Friday — earns the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Tournament, while Gustavus will have to hope for an at-large berth.
St. Thomas got on the board in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Alison Wright (Pewaukee, Wis.), then pushed its lead to 3-0 on Wright’s second home run of the tournament — one-out, two-run home run in the top of the third.
The Tommies would make it 4-0 on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Steph Moores (Big Lake, Minn.) in the fourth, before the Gusties decided to make things interesting.
GAC, hitless through the first three innings off UST starter Marta Radcliffe (Lakeville, Minn.), made the most of their first hit off the Tommie junior, as Jenna Johnson (Shoreview, Minn.) laced a two-run single to center to cut the St. Thomas lead to 4-2.
GAC would go down in order in both the fifth and sixth innings, before Johnson came through again, delivering a lead-off home run over the right-center field fence to open the bottom of the seventh inning and pull the Gusties to within one, 4-3. A groundout to short and back-to-back fly outs to left, however, ended the threat — and the Gusties season.
Johnson finished with both hits for GAC (37-7), going 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs, while Wright was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Kaitlyn Wrightman (Forest Lake, Minn.) was 2-for-3 with two runs scored for St. Thomas (39-4).
Gustavus-St. Thomas Box Score
MIAC Softball Playoffs Website