Freshman Jenna Hoffman’s hot bat led the No. 18-ranked St. Thomas softball team over University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (29-14) 9-3 Thursday in the NCAA regional tournament in Eau Claire, Wis.
Hoffman went 2-3 on the day, hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning and collecting two RBIs.
“It was awesome to see a freshman step up in that situation,” sophomore Alyssa Dunrud said. “She was relaxed. Usually freshmen get a little nervous because of the whole regional atmosphere, but she definitely came through and proved herself like she usually does.”
Hoffman wasn’t the only Tommie who had success at the plate. As a team, St. Thomas slugged 14 hits, with Emily Gregory, Megan Sitek and Becky Eischens each getting two hits and two RBIs. Senior All-American Sydney Marquardt added two hits.
“We were really happy with our offensive performance,” Dunrud said. “All season we’ve just said, ‘If we can keep the bats going, then we’ll win games.’ Today, we just tried to stay consistent with what we’ve been doing all season and not change anything. It worked for us again, and hopefully it keeps working for us throughout the rest of the season.”
Senior pitcher Biz Sitzmann picked up her 18th win of the season, pitching five innings, allowing nine hits and giving up two earned runs.
“Biz pitched really well again,” Eischens said. “She had a lot of movement on her pitches and kept hitters off-balance. We had a lot of good defensive plays that kept the momentum going.”
With the win, St. Thomas increased its season winning streak to 30 games, and the softball program tallied its eighth consecutive 40-win season.
“I think it just proves that hard work pays off,” Dunrud said. “Our program is all about working hard and good team chemistry, and that’s one of the things that we had going this season. It seems to be working well again.”
St. Thomas will play its second-round game at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Ripon College.
“They look pretty good,” Eischens said. “But we don’t know much about them.”
Ryan Shaver can be reached at shav7005@stthomas.edu.