Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 It is only the first week of the MIAC softball season. But there is little question the Hamline Pipers have shot out of the gate fast and are serving notice they intend to be a factor in the conference race. 

HU stretched their overall winning streak to eight games in a row and tied their best MIAC start at 4-0 when they slapped out 18 runs and 26 hits in a sweep of Augsburg at Edor Nelson Field Tuesday. There were a few hectic moments at the end but Casey Anderson escaped a bases loaded jam to save an 8-6 win. The sophomore then came back to throw a complete game four-hitter as HU pounded out a 10-0, five inning win in the nightcap. 

The top three hitters in the Piper order -- Jamie Rubbelke, Mary-Clare Couillard and Amanda Orrell -- were a collective 16-for-22 at the plate as Hamline improved to 11-5 overall in addition to standing alone in first place in the conference. 

Rubbelke was 4-for-6, walked three times, scored six runs and hit her second homer of the season. She is on an eight-game hitting streak that has elevated her batting average 200 points to .392. Couillard was 5-for-8 and scored four times in stretching her hitting streak to 12 games in a row. Her .464 batting average leads the Pipers and ranks sixth in the MIAC.  Orrell, however, topped all of them with a 6-for-8 day that included three doubles and nine RBI. 

In the first game, Hamline sprinted to a 7-0 lead after three and a half innings. Sarah DeMars (5-2) struck out a season high nine batters but needed final inning relief help from Anderson to close out the Auggies. 

There was no such drama in the second game. Anderson drilled a three-run homer in the third inning to break a tight game open. Orrell had a bases-loaded double that produced three RBI in the next inning and HU never looked back. Anderson (pictured) walked none and fanned four in raising her won-loss mark to 6-3 on the season. The six wins is tied for second in the conference.

The current eight game winning streak is the most in four seasons and is just two short of the school standard of 10 set in 2009. The 4-0 break from the gate matches the 2010 team for best MIAC start ever. 

The Pipers' winning ways will now be tested by the conference preseason favorite St. Thomas (20-4 overall, 4-2 in the MIAC). The Meredith Field doubleheader will begin at 3:30 p.m.