The #14 Aquinas softball team finished the 2022 regular season with a road doubleheader split at Concordia on Saturday (Apr. 30). AQ prevailed in a wild-opening game with a 9-8 victory, while the Cardinals bounced back with a 1-0 win in the nightcap.
With the split, Aquinas closes the regular season with a 34-12 overall record and 14-8 conference mark. Concordia is 25-25 overall and 8-4 in league action. AQ's 34 victories are tied for the eighth-most wins in a season in school history; the 2000 and 2001 teams won a school record 42 games in both seasons.
GAME 1: Aquinas 9, Concordia 8
The Saints scored in five innings, including multiple runs in the second, third, fifth, and seventh frames.
Jordan Humitz put AQ in front 2-0 in the second inning by drilling a two-run homer to right field to score Kaeyln Stafford, but the Cardinals tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning.
In the top of the third, it was
Izzy Dawson's turn, as the senior also blasted a two-run homer to right center field, plating
Courtney Hardin.
Kim Sosnowski's RBI single in the fourth scored
Emily Cline and made it 5-2 in AQ's favor. Dawson repeated her feat in the top of the fifth inning, this time smashing a two-run roundtripper to left center for her second home run of the game. The blast brought in
Ashley Snyder and put Aquinas in front, 7-3.
AQ was still on top 7-5 in the seventh when
Leah Vaughan walked with the bases loaded and Cline added a run-scoring groundout for the 9-5 advantage. Those runs proved to be crucial, as Concordia tallied a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, but the Saints prevailed with the 9-8 victory.
Dawson finished the opener with a 3-for-4 line, two homers, two runs, and four RBI. Humitz homered and drove in two runs. Hardin had the most unique statline of the day: officially 0-for-0 with two runs scored and four walks. Vaughan walked twice and drove in a run.
Leah Ash moved to 14-5 on the season, tossing four innings of five-hit ball. She allowed three runs (two earned), while walking one.
Nina Bennett allowed two runs in two innings and
Grace Maguire gave up one earned run in the seventh.
GAME 2: Concordia 1, Aquinas 0
After the opener saw 17 runs and 16 hits, game two featured one combined run on 11 hits. Concordia used three hits in the bottom of the third and scored the game's only run on a bunt single to bring in a Cardinal for the 1-0 lead.
AQ was held to just three hits, but Dawson opened the top of the seventh with a double and moved to third with just one out. The Saints tried to tie the game on a groundball, but Concordia threw out Aquinas' pinch runner at home to keep it as a 1-0 CUAA lead. Two batters later, the Cardinals closed out the game with the pitcher's duel victory.
Kayla Fessenden (14-5) suffered a tough loss for the Saints. She allowed one run on eight hits in six innings in the circle. Fessenden did not issue a walk and struck out four Cardinals.
The three hits for AQ came from Dawson,
Carson Hendrickson, and
Halee Holman.
Aquinas appears to be locked into the #5 seed for next week's WHAC Tournament, held from May 5-7 in Sylvania, Ohio. The Saints look to potentially be matched up with fourth-seed Indiana Tech in the tournament's opening round.
