NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College softball team (12-10, 3-5) swept College of St. Scholastica by scores of 12-7 and 11-9 in a Saturday doubleheader. The Knights were led by their bats, with first-year Megan Smith going 6-for-8 and senior Reagan Wills going 5-for-7 in the twinbill.
 
"It was quite a day of softball," said Carleton head coach Amy Erickson. "We are continuing to have some really great quality at bats and hitting the ball hard. There's lots of softball left, and we know that every game is a battle in the MIAC."
 
Game 1:
The Knights (12-10, 3-5 MIAC) started quickly. Smith doubled, advanced to third on Adriana Wiggins' single, and scoring on a sacrifice bunt by Bryanna Schaffer. Grace Colburn followed with a RBI single.
 
St. Scholastica (3-21, 0-10 MIAC) countered with a three-run triple in the second only to watch Carleton respond with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Wiggins' delivered a two-run single then came home to score when Saints were unable to complete a rundown elsewhere on the basepaths.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, the Knights pushed their lead to 10-3. Schaffer smacked a RBI double, Colburn added a run-scoring single, and Wills contributed a sacrifice fly before Natasha Paez blasted a two-run home run for her second roundtripper in as many doubleheaders.
 
St. Scholastica looked to rally in the sixth, plating four runs including a two-run long ball for Haley Rosenthal.
 
Carleton answered back with a Wills' RBI single and Paez RBI double in the sixth to round out the scoring.
 
Six players had multi-hit games for Carleton, led by 3-for-4 showings by Smith and Wiggins. Five players had multi-RBI stat lines, including three RBI for Colburn and Paez.
 
Rachel Block (6-4) got the win for the Knights, going 5.1 innings and giving up 7 runs. Sydney Trentman came in to register her first collegiate save, tossing 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.
 
Game 2:
The Saints struck right away, using two singles and a passed ball to take a 1-0 lead. Carleton responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame via a Schaffer RBI groundout and a dropped fly ball.
 
The Knights scored three more times in the second. Esme Song doubled in a run before the first of two triples in the game for Smith. Wiggins followed with a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-1 in favor of the home team.
 
The Saints plated a run in the top of the third, before Carleton pushed four more runs across in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a Wills' double and three-run triple for Smith, extending the lead to 9-2.
 
The scoreboard operator remained busy as a two-run homer by Aislind Dail helped the Saints respond with three tallies in the top of the fourth to make it a 9-5 game. Back-to-back walks to start the sixth inning led to two more St. Scholastica runs, but the Carleton bats delivered two important insurance runs in the home half of the stanza. Paez had a sacrifice fly, and Helen Moses registered a RBI single.
 
Those tallies proved critical when the Saints scored two unearned runs in the top of the seventh.
 
Smith, Wills, and Moses each went 3-for-4 in the contest.
 
This time Trentman (5-6) got the win while Block picked up her first save.
 
Next Up for the Knights
Carleton will host Colleg of Saint Benedict on Wednesday, April 17 for a 3:30 p.m. doubleheader. The Knights' twinbill against Saint Mary's University (recently rescheduled for April 16) has been postponed to Thursday, April 18 at 3:30 p.m.