04/27/06

Senior Laura Heise picked up the wins in both games for the Saints, pitching one-hitters in each to move her record past the 20-win mark. In her four years at St. Scholastica, Heise (21-4) surpassed 20-wins in a season three times.

The Saints jumped on the Blue Devils in the opening inning of game one as Rilee Dawson stroked a based loaded double that cleared the bases to give Heise and the Saints a 3-0 lead.

Heise sailed through the first five innings, striking out 10 of the first 15 batters she faced while not allowing either a hit or walk. Not needing any insurance runs with those results, she nonetheless picked up one more as junior Erica Bond lined a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth that cleared the center field fence in a hurry. It was Bond’s fifth of the season, tying her with Heise for the team lead.

For the game, Heise picked up 12 strikeouts, allowed one run on one hit and surrendered only one walk. Dawson finished 2-for-3 at the plate with her three RBI from the first inning leading the Saints.

As they’ve done so often this season, the Saints used a big inning to open a lead in game two, pushing nine runs across the plate in the bottom of the second inning to chase Stout starter Jessica Glasgow. It was the nineteenth time this year the Saints have scored four or more runs in an inning.

Bond picked up two singles in the inning, starting things off for the Saints with a leadoff grounder through the left side. Joann Juten also picked up a pair of singles in her first game back from a hand injury. In all, the Saints sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning.

Bond and senior catcher Kelly Cordie were both 3-for-3 in the game two victory, while Heise and Juten each added a pair of hits.

With five strikeouts in the nightcap, Heise added 17 more to her career total, moving her into third place on the all-time career strikeout list with 1,059. She and Lacey Lister from Salisbury (Md.) University  – 1,053 career strikeouts – are both chasing the Division-III career mark of 1,121 set by Kelly Schade from Simpson (Iowa) College between 1996-99.

Since arriving on the St. Scholastica campus four Falls ago, Heise, Cordie, Kristi Erickson (Becker, Minn.), Sara Kneisl, Paula Madden, Andrea Thomas, and Jody Yurczyk have helped transform the Saints into a powerhouse program.

In the 19 seasons prior to when they hit the field for the Saints in the spring of 2003, St. Scholastica had achieved winning season records only six times – never more than two seasons in a row – but have done so each of their four years at the College.

From 1984 to 2002, the program had a winning percentage of .463 (279-323) but since then have won 133 games against only 36 losses for a winning percentage of .787.

In addition, all seven seniors have passed the century mark in hitting, each col­lecting more than 100 hits in their careers — seven of only 14 Saints to do so.

The No. 23 Saints (29-7) take their perfect 10-0 conference mark into the final weekend of regular season UMAC play. St. Scholastica travels to Ashland, Wisconsin for the second of two UMAC Crossover weekends where they will play Bethany Lutheran College (6-18 overall, 3-7 UMAC) and Martin Luther College (7-21, 3-7) on Friday. The season concludes with games against Presentation (S.D.) College (7-19, 5-5) and Minnesota-Morris (7-24, 5-5) on Saturday.

The Saints have a three-game lead over second place Northland College (16-18, 7-3) and two wins in Ashland would clinch their  seventh consecutive UMAC crown as well as the post-season UMAC tournament’s top seed.