Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – It was a successful start to the 2015 Augustana Invitational for the 16th-ranked Viking softball team Saturday. Coach Kris Kistler's club recorded wins over Ripon (11-3) and Coe (6-2) at Carver Field, with sophomore Brittany Kellett (The Woodland HS, The Woodlands, Texas) homering in each contest. Now 14-3-1 on the season, Augustana will wrap up tournament play on Sunday, March 29 with games against Wisconsin-Stout and Wartburg at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., respectively.
 
AUGUSTANA 11, RIPON 3
 
The Vikings put all 11 runs on the board in the first three frames and cruised to a five-inning win over the Red Hawks.
 
Senior Laura Behnke (St. Francis HS, Roselle, Ill.) led off the game with a double to center. She scored when Ripon made an error on Jenna Teson's (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) sacrifice bunt. Teson wound up at second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ashley Anderson's (Sherrard HS, Viola, Ill.) double down the left field line. Anderson scored on an Emily Rasche (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) groundout and Augustana led 3-0 after a half inning.
 
Anderson, who started in the circle, set the Red Hawks down in order in the bottom of the first and the Viking bats got busy again in the second.  Junior Taylor Ambrozi (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) drove in two runs with a double to left, Behnke delivered another with a sacrifice fly and Kellett crushed a Ashley Parkkonen offering over the scoreboard in center, a three-run blast that put the Vikings ahead 9-0.
 
Parkonnen homered in the bottom of the second to get Ripon on the board and the Red Hawks added an unearned run in the inning to cut the deficit to 9-2. However, in the top of the third, junior Kassandra Anderson (Geneseo HS, Silvis, Ill.) lined a two-run homer over the fence in right center to re-establish the Vikings' nine-run lead.
 
Freshman Alaina Hofmann (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) came on for Ashley Anderson to start the third and closed out the contest. She allowed one run on four hits and fanned two in three innings of work to pick up her third win in as many decisions.
 
AUGUSTANA 6, COE 2
 
Kellett pounded her second homer of the day, Ashley Anderson had three hits and freshman Shelby Grandt (Broomfield HS, Broomfield, Colo.) went the distance in the circle as the Vikings downed Coe, now 12-6 on the year.
 
Her teammates gave Grandt all the runs she would need in the bottom of the first. Teson lined a one-out single off the leg of Kohawk pitcher Arran Weeces. Ashley Anderson followed with a double down the right field line and Kellett hit her second three-run homer in as many plate appearances to put the hosts up 3-0.
 
Augustana added a run in the second on singles by Behnke and Ashley Anderson.
 
Mallory McArtor led off the top of the third with a bunt single, stole second and eventually scored on Brianna Gardner's ground out. The Kohawks cut the deficit in half with a run in the fifth. McCall Meade led off with a double and scored on an infield hit by Erin Lang.
 
In the Viking sixth, freshman Lauren Severson (Morris HS, Morris, Ill.) led off with a single and junior Jennifer Gray (Lincoln-Way East HS, Mokena, Ill.) provided Grandt with some insurance with her first home run of the season to make it 6-2 Vikings.
 
Grandt finished strong, retiring the final four batters on three strikeouts and a comebacker. The win was her fifth in six decisions this season. Weeces suffered just her second loss against seven wins.