ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Carleton College softball team pushed its win streak to four games by sweeping Sunday's doubleheader at Hamline University. The Knights prevailed by scores of 7-1 and 9-0 (5 inn.) behind gems by starting pitchers
Rachel Block and
Sydney Trentman.
Game 1 — Carleton 7, Hamline 1
Block went the distance for her fourth complete game of the season, allowing only one unearned run on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts.
Megan Smith led the offense with three hits and three runs scored. She doubled to start the game before advancing to third and then home on a pair of wild pitches. She tripled in
Angelina Wu during the second inning.
Hamline (4-21, 1-8 MIAC) plated a two-out unearned run in the bottom of the third, but Carleton (14-14, 4-8 MIAC) responded with two tallies during its next turn at bat.
Samantha Rodriguez had an RBI single, and Smith doubled and came across on an error.
Carleton scored three more times during the fifth inning.
Esme Song escaped a rundown and scored the first of those runs, and
Gloria Hronek drove in the other two runs with her two out single to left field.
Block permitted just one hit over the final three innings to close out the victory.
The bottom of the Carleton order was a thorn in the Pipers' side as No. 8 hitter
Natasha Paez went 1-for-1 with three walks, while Wu batted ninth and was 2-of-2 with a walk and a sacrifice bunt.
Game 2 — Carleton 9, Hamline 0 (5 inn.)
Trentman tossed her second shutout of the season and the seventh of her career. This one was a five-hitter that included a pair of infield hits. Trentman did not issue a walk and fanned seven batters to match her non-extra inning high for the campaign.
The Knights opened the scoring with pair of runs in the second innings thanks to singles by
Jade Thach, Song,
Claire Hester, and Wu.
Carleton pulled away with a seven-run top of the fourth, the Knights' biggest single-inning outburst since a seven-run frame against North Central University on Feb. 23, 2024.
Song started the rally on Sunday with a single, Hester walked, and Wu sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Smith followed with a two-run single before Rodriguez and
Adriana Wiggins had infield hits, the latter of which plated the next run. After a groundout, Thach delivered a two-run hit before Paez singled home another run. Back-to-back walks preceded an RBI single by pinch hitter
Cora zumBrunnen.
Trentman kept Hamline from building any momentum and struck out the side in the fifth to end the game.
Thach was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Rodriguez and Song had two hits apiece as the Knights matched their season high with 14 base knocks.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton travels to Concordia College-Moorhead for a 4:00 p.m. doubleheader on Tuesday, April 21.
