Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – It didn't take long for the Augustana softball team, ranked 19^th in NCAA Division III, to recover from a double header sweep at the hands of Illinois Wesleyan. Less than 24 hours after losing a pair to the Titans, head coach Kris Kistler's bunch bounced back with a sweep of Elmhurst on Saturday, April 19 at Carver Field. The Vikings won game one 2-0 on a two-run home run by junior Laura Behnke (Wheaton St. Francis HS, Roselle, Ill.) in the bottom of the seventh inning  and 5-2 in the night cap.
 
Augustana is now 27-9 overall and 8-4 in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin with four regular season games left to play. The Vikings travel to Monmouth on Wednesday, April 23 for a non-conference double header before coming home to face North Central in a CCIW twin-bill on Saturday, April 26.
 
GAME 1
 
Behnke ended this one in the bottom of the seventh inning with a two-run home run over the right field fence to score sophomore Jennifer Gray (Lincoln-Way East HS, Mokena, Ill.) and give Augustana a 2-0 victory. The two teams were scoreless through six and a half innings before pinch-hitter Miranda Hiemer (Nazareth Academy, Chicago, Ill.) worked a walk off Elmhurst starter Katie Boals.
 
Hiemer was then erased on a double play when Viking pitcher Sarah Hintz (LeRoy HS, LeRoy, Ill.) popped up trying to bunt and Hiemer was thrown out trying to get back to first. Gray singled to keep the inning alive and Behnke ended it with a towering blast to right for her fourth home run of the season.
 
Hintz was superb on the mound for the second day in a row. She went 10 innings against Illinois Wesleyan without allowing an earned run the day before and worked seven innings without giving up a run to pick up the win against the Bluejays. She struck out two, didn't walk anybody and scattered six hits. She moves to 13-3 on the season.
 
The Vikings only managed six hits off Boals and Gray had three and Behnke two.
 
GAME 2
 
Junior Christie Wiersema (Morrison HS, Morrison, Ill.) helped pitch and hit the Vikings to a 5-2 victory over the Bluejays to complete the double header sweep. She was called on in relief of starter Ashley Anderson (Sherrard HS, Viola, Ill.) with Augustana leading 3-1 after two innings. She worked the final five innings and gave up just five hits and one run with two strikeouts and a walk to pick up her third victory of the season against no defeats.
 
After surrendering a run in the bottom of the third (Augustana was the visiting team in the second game of this CCIW double header), she settled down and retired 11 in a row and 13 of the final 14 batters she faced. She also hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth that pushed the Vikings' lead to 5-2.
 
Augustana broke out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when junior Jenna Teson (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) and senior Krista Watson (Coal City HS, Coal City, Ill.) singled with one out. Senior Jaime Rehmert (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) walked to load the bases and Wiersema singled home Teson and Watson scored on a wild pitch.
 
In the top of the third Gray led off with a single and came in on a single by Watson. Teson's double in the third with two outs plated Anderson, who had reached on a walk and moved to second on a successful sacrifice by Gray.
 
Elmhurst bunched four singles off Anderson in the bottom of the second to make it 3-1 and Kistler made the pitching change and brought in Wiersema. After walking the first batter she faced and giving up two singles to two of the next four, Wiersema settled down and shut down the Elmhurst bats.
 
Teson, Watson and Wiersema all had two hits in the game to lead an eight-hit Augustana attack.