Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – For the second year in a row, St. Thomas has eliminated Coach Kris Kistler's Augustana softball team from the NCAA tournament. Needing to beat the 22nd-ranked Vikings twice on Sunday to advance to next weekend's Super Regional, the Tommies did just that. They overcame a 4-1 deficit in the first game to win 5-4 in nine innings and jumped on top 5-1 after an inning and a half in the second. The teams then endured a three-hour weather delay before St. Thomas eventually held on for a tournament-clinching 10-7 win. Augustana finishes the year at 35-13, one win shy of the school-record 36 that Kistler's 2004 team won. The 13th-ranked Tommies move on with a 40-6 mark.
 
ST. THOMAS 5, AUGUSTANA 4 (9 Innings)
 
A pair of RBI singles in the second and fourth innings by starting pitcher Sarah Hintz (Le Roy HS, Le Roy, Ill.) and solo home runs by Jaime Rehmert (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) in the fifth and Laura Behnke (St. Francis HS, Roselle, Ill.) in the sixth gave the Vikings a 4-1 lead after five and a half innings in the day's first contest. Rehmert's blast was her fifth of the season, while Behnke's was her team-leading eighth of the year.
 
St. Thomas squeezed in one run in the bottom of the sixth and scored another on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Meg DuPuis to cut the deficit to 4-3. After Kendra Bowe retired the Vikings in order in the top of the seventh, Jenna Hoffman's leadoff homer in the bottom half tied the game at 4-4.
 
Augustana got a one-out walk in the top of the eighth and stranded two runners in the ninth, but couldn't push across the go-ahead run. DuPuis led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to left, moved to second on a Hoffman sacrifice and came around to score the game-winner on Bianca Peterson's single to center.
 
Hintz went the distance for the sixth time in ten days and suffered the loss, falling to 19-5 on the year. Bowe, who the Vikings beat in their tournament opener on Friday, got the win to improve to 22-6.
 
ST. THOMAS 10, AUGUSTANA 7
 
Sophomore Ashley Anderson's (Sherrard HS, Viola, Ill.) RBI single in the bottom of the first gave Augustana a 1-0 lead in the second game, but it was short-lived, as the Tommies answered with five runs in the top of the second. Peterson hit a two-run homer and Emily Gregory followed with a solo shot, knocking Hintz out in favor of Anderson.
 
Strong storms and lightning caused a three-hour delay after two innings and when play resumed, St. Thomas added two more to extend the advantage to 7-1. A Behnke double and Krista Watson's (Coal City HS, Coal City, Ill.) RBI single plated a run Viking run in the bottom of the third to make it 7-2.
 
In the sixth, St. Thomas added three runs to go up 10-2. In the bottom half, Watson hit a grand slam in her final collegiate at-bat to make it interesting. However, after Jennifer Gray (Lincoln-Way East HS, Mokena, Ill.) drew a one-out walk in the seventh, Bowe came on and retired the final two batters to earn her first save of the season.
 
Hintz took her second loss of the day and finished the season 19-6. Despite allowing five runs in three innings, Kritstin Bigelbach was credited with the win. Watson was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and five driven in.

Behnke (LF), Watson (SS), Rehmert (1B) and Hintz (P) were named to the All-Regional team.