Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 It's an old bromide that is still true today -- pitching and defense win you close games. 

The Hamline softball team had both of those ingredients going for them Thursday in a 1-0 win over St. Thomas at Meredith Field that earned them a split of their MIAC doubleheader. The victory is believed to be the first in school history in softball over the Tommies and improved the Pipers to 12-6 overall and 5-1 in the MIAC. 

Casey Anderson (pictured) threw an eight hitter with no walks and four strikeouts for her second straight shutout. The righty kept the ball low all day, forcing 11 ground ball outs to improve to 7-3 overall with a 3.12 ERA. The Pipers turned a pair of double plays and also caught two runners trying to steal bases to preserve the win. 

Hamline scored an unearned run in the second inning. Chelsea Koehn had his first of two hits in the game with an out single. She moved to second on an error and alertly scored when the UST shortstop committed an error on Alli Ruter's grounder.  

The defense did the rest. Anderson helped her cause by starting one inning ending double play and spearing a line drive in the seventh with the tying run on base. 2B Mary-Clare Couillard did her part, too, picking off a hard hit grounder, tagging the passing runner and throwing to first for the twin killing. C Katie Koren also got in on the act. In the first inning, she recovered a pitch that leaked away from her and threw out a UST runner at home trying to score from third. In the sixth, she ignited a play that proved to be a team effort when a UST runner wandered too far from second. In the ensuing rundown, Koehn, Ruter and Couillard all took part in rundowns before the latter recorded the out. 

Hamline has committed just 14 errors in 18 games. Their .972 fielding percentage is second in the MIAC to St. Catherine. 

In the opener, UST jumped to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning and never looked back for an 8-2 win. Sarah DeMars (5-3) walked four and hit two others but settled down to throw the complete game. Down 6-0 in the sixth, HU loaded the bases with one out. After a second out was made, Jenna Dushaw laced a two RBI single. But the Tommies scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh. 

The games were held up slightly at the start as the players were forced to do some quick repairs to the outfield fences struggling to hold forth with winds that, at times gusted up to 40 mph. 

HU returns to action Tuesday, April 7 with a doubleheader against Concordia at Meredith Field. The two games start at 3:30 p.m. This is a makeup from a pair that were originally scheduled for March 25. The games that had been slated for that day against UW-River Falls have been moved to Thursday, April 9.