05/06/06

The Saints will play the winner of Saturday morning's Northland/Northwestern game in a game that could decide the UMAC Tournament champion. Either team, each with a loss already in the double-elimination tournament, would have to beat the 2-0 Saints twice to steal the championship away from the tournament's top seed.

If the Saints play anything like today, whomever they face will have a difficult task ahead of them.

Freshman Amy Jansen (7-0) got the start in the Morris game and completely shut down the Cougars, allowing only 2 hits -- to the same player -- without allowing a run or walk, while striking out 4.
The Saints scored 1 run in the first to give Jansen a lead, then widened the margin with 5 more in the second and 2 more in the third.
Four different Saints had triples in the game -- Erica Bond, Rilee Dawson, Laura Heise and Sara Kneisl each circled the bases in the 12-hit attack.
Heise finished with 3 hits and 3 RBI while Dawson and Dre Thomas both picked up 2 hits to lead the Saints. Thomas and lead-off batter Jody Yurczyk scored a pair of runs apiece in the win.

The Northland game was a scoreless affair until the Saints scored 6 runs in the bottom of the third inning to grab the lead. They pushed 3 more across the plate in the next inning in taking a 9-0 lead.
A single run was all Laura Heise needed on the mound against the LumberJills. In the 5-inning shutout, Heise (24-4) allowed only 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 10 of the 19 batters she faced.
Erica Bond was 2-for-3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored for the Saints. Heise hit her 7th homerun of the season in the game while Dawson picked up 2 more RBI giving her 3 for the day.

The Saints were clutch hitters at the plate all day as they scored 15 of their 17 runs today with 2 outs in the inning.

Should the Saints sweep the Tournament and win tomorrow, it would be the sixth UMAC Tournament title in a row for the program and their tenth overall title.