The bats were in full effect in the first-ever Division I meeting between the Gophers and St. Thomas that saw Minnesota take home a 9-3 win in a game where the teams combined for five home runs Tuesday evening at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.
“It’s awesome,” sophomore Sara Kinch said of the Tommies becoming the second Division I softball program in Minnesota. “They are a great hitting team. They have good pitching. It’s exciting for them.”
All four of Minnesota’s home runs came as solo shots as senior Emily Hansen and Kinch scorched back-to-back home runs in the 3rd inning. The duo combined for three RBIs and two runs scored in the game, accounting for five of Minnesota’s nine runs on the evening to help bring the Gophers above .500 (21-20-1).
“Our approach is always the same, regardless of who we’re playing,” Gophers head coach Piper Ritter said. “[The team] did a really good job of zone management and swinging at the pitches they wanted to hit.”
The Gophers, who recorded fewer hits (7) than St. Thomas (8), earned their largest lead at 9-3 after scoring two runs in the sixth and fifth innings. The Tommies helped Minnesota around the bases as they walked six batters alongside hitting another with a pitch.
The Tommies started to claw back against the Gophers as all three of their runs came in the fourth inning. Kaitlyn Raymond led off with a double before Cassidy Carby hit a two-run home run over the right-field wall. St. Thomas added one more off a Coryn Jacobson RBI single.
Entering as the relief pitcher at the start of the fifth inning for starting pitcher freshman Emily Leavitt, who earned her 10th win this season, senior Autumn Pease shut the Tommies out the rest of the way.
Pease recorded six strikeouts, including half of them in the seventh, and allowed just three hits in three innings pitched to earn her third save this season.
“She [Pease] had a good game, but for the most part, she’s very honest with herself, where her pitches are and how she’s doing that day,” Ritter said. “She doesn’t try to do too much or think that her pitches are good when they’re not. She has a very realistic and honest approach to every game.”
Rounding out the four home run game for Minnesota, graduate student Megan Dray blasted her seventh this season over the left-field wall as sophomore Chloe Evans followed her up two at-bats later with another solo shot in the second inning.
The Gophers will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for their last away series this season when they take on Michigan for a three-game series as game one will take place on Friday, April 29, at 5 p.m.
