Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The 14th-ranked Augustana softball team suffered its first loss of the 2015 season Saturday, falling 5-2 to 18th-ranked Washington University, but rebounded with a 10-1 pasting of Buena Vista at the Mizuno Invitational. Coach Kris Kistler's Vikings are now 11-1 on the year and wrap up the tournament on Sunday, March 22 with games against the same two teams.
 
WASHINGTON 5, AUGUSTANA 2
 
The host Bears (17-4) turned a leadoff walk into a five-run third inning in Augustana's first game of the day. Viking southpaw Ashley Anderson (Sherrard HS, Viola, Ill.) issued the base on balls to Halle Steinberg. A sacrifice bunt and two infield hits plated Steinberg with the game's first run. Hannah Mehrle delivered a two-two run single to center and Janet Taylor and Brooke Hofer each added an RBI double to cap the frame.
 
Anderson helped her own cause with an RBI single in the fourth and Augustana added a run in the fifth on Emily Rasche's (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) solo home run.
 
That would be all the Vikings could muster against Washington's Annie Pitkin, though. The Bear right-hander put up goose eggs in the final two frames to improve to 11-2 on the season. She allowed four hits, walked none and fanned a dozen.
 
Anderson took her first loss after five wins. Excluding the rough third inning, she allowed just three base runners. She and Rasche accounted for all of Augustana's hits, with two each.
 
AUGUSTANA 10, BUENA VISTA 1
 
The Vikings bounced back in their second contest on the strength of freshman pitchers Alaina Hofmann (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) and Shelby Grandt (Broomfield HS, Broomfield, Colo.) and a six-run sixth inning that put the game away.
 
Buena Vista scratched across its only run off Hofmann in the top of the first. Stephanie Hayden led off the game with a single to right, stole second and scored on Marissa Schmidt's single to center. Hofmann stranded two runners to avoid further damage.
 
Augustana took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the third. Beaver hurler Moriah Guyett hit junior Jennifer Gray (Lincoln-Way East HS, Mokena, Ill.) to start the inning. Bunt singles by seniors Chelsea Lavin (Downers Grove South HS, Downers Grove, Ill.) and Laura Behnke (St. Francis HS, Roselle, Ill.) loaded the bases. Anderson brought home her team's first run with a sacrifice fly to right and Rasche gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead with an RBI single to left.
 
Lavin drove in a run with a single in the fourth and Rasche delivered an RBI double in the fifth to give Grandt, who had come on to start the fifth, a 4-1 lead.
 
Augustana ended it early with half a dozen in the sixth. Senior Christina Pagan (Normal West HS, Normal, Ill.) started the frame being hit by a pitch. After the Vikings loaded the bases, Buena Vista cut down a runner at the plate, but senior Jenna Teson (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) came through with an RBI triple right. After a walk to Rasche, Grandt saved herself an inning of work by pounding a Keely Bycroft offering over the left field fence for her first collegiate home run—a three-run shot that ended the game by mercy rule.
 
Lavin went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and one driven in to fuel a 10-hit Augustana attack. Teson was 2-for-2 with two scored and three knocked in and Rasche finished 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI.
 
Hofmann went the first four innings to get the win and improve to 2-0 this year. She gave up four hits, walked one and fanned five. Grandt finished up the final two frames to earn her first save.