Pitcher Kendra Bowe did a little bit of everything for the fourth-seeded St. Thomas softball team Friday afternoon as the team trounced the first-seeded Bethel Royals 7-0 in the opening game of the MIAC playoffs.
Bowe held Bethel to one hit in the game and also smacked a three-run home run deep into the left field trees to carry her team onto the next round of the double-elimination tournament.
“It was a great day,” Bowe said. “Overall, it was just a phenomenal team effort. The bench, the reserves, they were all up giving us energy. We had a lot of people step up and get big hits at the right time and a lot of people get on base right away.”
Catcher Micaela Trainor got the scoring started for the Tommies with a solo home run in the second inning. Pinch-hitter Danielle Tschann hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score right fielder Annie Boyer, who had two doubles on the day, to make it 2-0.
The big rally for St. Thomas came in the sixth inning when left fielder Katie Jo Delisle started the inning with a single, followed by one of Boyer’s two doubles. Trainor collected another RBI on a single, scoring Delisle, and then came Bowe’s three-run homer to top off the inning.
The Tommies would add one more run in the seventh on a Bianca Peterson solo shot to center.
“We work all year with the idea of get better everyday. It has paid off the last three weeks, I thought,” coach John Tschida said. “We’re playing our best ball. We’ve come a long way on so many aspects of our play, and we are kind of peaking at the right time.”
The upset of top-seeded Bethel puts St. Thomas in control of its own destiny moving forward.
“(Winning your first game) just makes your life a whole lot easier,” Tschida said. “You eliminate a lot of games, and you get to sit in the driver’s seat. That’s where you want to be. You lose the first one and it’s a long way back.”
The Tommies will be back at it at 1:30 p.m. Saturday against Gustavus, which beat Hamline 6-0 in its opening game of the conference tournament.
Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu.