CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The No. 14-ranked St. Thomas softball team (36-6) lost its opening game of the NCAA tournament 7-1 Friday, as the Augustana (Ill.) Vikings came out swinging, getting to Tommie pitcher Kendra Bowe early on.
The No. 22-ranked Vikings (34-11) scored early and often. The hot bats along with a stellar pitching performance from senior Sarah Hintz made for a tough day at the park for the Tommies.
“That was very good pitching by them. She didn’t miss too many spots,” coach John Tschida said of Hintz. “We threw away a few at-bats, but not many. It was more about her executing her pitches.”
Hintz went the distance for the Vikings, only allowing one run on four hits in seven innings.
The Vikings pitcher was helped out with some excellent run support. Augustana loaded the bases in the first inning, but only managed to get one run out of it. The damage came in the third inning when the Vikings hit two home runs. Leadoff hitter Laura Behnke took Bowe deep on the first pitch of the third inning, and three batters later, clean-up hitter Jaime Rehmert hit a two-run blast, ending Bowe’s day.
“They obviously have a great hitting team,” Bowe said. “I know if I execute my spots we are going to do just fine. It’s just a matter of locking in and executing at this point.”
Junior Annie Boyer entered the game to relieve Bowe and was able to halt the Viking offense for a while, throwing three scoreless innings before Augustana got three runs against her in the sixth.
“My changeup and my screwball were working pretty well,” Boyer said. “I was really focused on just hitting spots … just staying calm.”
It didn’t matter how long Boyer held the Vikings’ offense in check, the bats just weren’t going for the Tommies. Held scoreless for the first six innings, St. Thomas finally squeaked one run across in the bottom of the seventh as second baseman Meg DuPuis ripped an RBI single to left, scoring designated hitter Brenna Walek.
Despite the loss in their first game of the tournament, the Tommies are far from done.
“It doesn’t really hurt… we just have to run uphill a little bit,” Tschida said. “My whole career it has always been eight teams, and now it’s four. Obviously, our next loss is our elimination, we know that, but in terms of coming back, very easy.”
The Tommies know they must play better than they did today, however, if they want to keep playing.
“All-in-all, today just wasn’t our day,” Bowe said. “We didn’t hit and we didn’t execute pitches. Now it’s just about coming back and looking to fight our way back to the top.”
“As long as we play like we can, there’s really nothing to it,” Boyer added. “We get to play again tomorrow. We just need to use the energy and do what we do.”
The Tommies will be back in action at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game against the loser of the St. Scholastica/Coe College game.
Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu.