Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 One moment, Hamline's softball team was staring disconsolately at the prospect of losing a tight, tough doubleheader to St. Catherine on their home field.

In a flash, however, it all changed as the Pipers, down to their last strike, rallied for two seventh inning runs and a 3-2 win to earn a split of the doubleheader with the Wildcats. 

After losing the first game of the twinbill, 3-1, HU trailed 2-1 entering the last inning. The first two batters were retired but Delaney Kohler, who had two hits earlier in the day, turned on a 1-2 pitch and hit a grounder into the hole, beating the throw to first by the SCU shortstop. The throw, in fact, went wide of the bag and Kohler hustled into second. 

That brought up leadoff hitter Jamie Rubbelke. The senior leads HU in RBIs but had been hitless on the day.

Until now.

Rubbelke drove a grounder through the left side of the infield. Kohler raced around third and headed home. SCU left fielder Brittney Frenette came up throwing but the toss went offline. Pitcher Megan Lindenfelser backed up the play, grabbed the ball and spied Rubbelke trying to go to second. She threw to get her but the ball sailed past everybody to the fence in right center field. Rubbelke got up and scrambled home with the winning run as Meredith Field erupted in a tizzy. 

The wild ending made a winner out of HU pitcher Sarah DeMars (6-6). The junior allowed seven hits but walked nobody and struck out six in a second solid start in as many days. The Pipers helped with three double plays and some solid glove work from 2B Mary-Clare Couillard, who made a nifty running catch and C Aubree Douglas, who spotted a SCU runner too far off second and threw down to erase her. 

In Game 1, Casey Anderson was victimized by a three-run fifth inning outburst that broke a scoreless tie. Hamline was held to one hit for six inning but used two walks and an error to load the bases in the seventh. Chelsea Koehn hit a sacrifice fly to score one run, bringing up Anderson with a chance to win her own game. The junior hit the ball hard ... but right to the SCU third baseman who snared the ball easily retired a runner off base to end the game. 

Hamline ended up the weekend with three wins in four games for the weekend and now stands 8-4 in the MIAC. That is good for fourth place -- the final playoff spot. HU, 15-11 overall, is off until Wednesday when they visit St. Benedict for a pair of games. On Friday, they have a makeup DH at Macalester and then go back to Meredith Field next Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. pair with St. Mary's.