Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Hamline softball team knows -- for the third year in a row -- their season will be extended into the  first weekend of May. 

HU swept Augsburg, 2-1 and 8-0 in five innings to improve to 16-4 in MIAC play and 21-11 overall. They have clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season. As for where they will finish and where the game will be played, more on that later.

Hamline, which had won six straight games and seven of their last eight, took two decidedly different paths to victory. In the opener, Kira Krueger (pictured) doubled home Casey Anderson with the wining run to break a 1-1 tie. In the nightcap, Anderson's three-run homer highlighted a six-run first inning outburst. Anderson kept the Auggies in check with a four-hitter for her seventh shutout of the season. 

The Pipers broke fast in  the opener. Chelsea Koehn hit the game's third pitch for a double. Two batters later, Abbie Annen singled her home for a 1-0 lead. The Auggies tied it in  the fourth on a home run but that was Sarah DeMars' only mistake on the day. While the senior righty shackled the Auggies on five hits, HU kept getting runners in  scoring position to no avail, leaving 11 stranded in all. With two out and nobody on in  the seventh, Anderson worked a seven-pitch walk. Krueger jumped on the first pitch for a ringing doubled to center, plating the winning run. Demars finished off Augsburg in the last of the seventh for the win, her 11th against four losses. She struck out a season high 10.

There was no such drama in   Game No. 2. The Pipers sent 10 batters to the plate, rapped out five hits and scored half a dozen runs before Anderson  even went to the mound. Aubree Douglas and Annen had RBI singles ahead of Anderson, who poled a lone home run to left field. Annen and Anderson had two hits apiece for HU in an eight hit attack.

On the mound, Anderson was efficiency personified, throwing just 56 pitches (43 strikes) in the five inning win. She walked none, fanned one and improved to 10-5 overall. Koehn, who had two hits in the opener, had one here and is now hitting .440. The senior first baseman has hits in 11 straight games.

At 16-4, Hamline and St. Thomas are tied for first place. If they finish tied for the top, HU would host the MIAC tournament at Meredith Field May 5-7. (They have the tiebreaker over UST because they swept a doubleheader in April.) St. Benedict is a game behind at 15-5. St. Catherine is 14-4 and St. Olaf is still in the chase with a 14-6 league mark. 

Much will be known after Saturday. The Pipers are off but UST is at Bethel and St. Catherine takes on St. Benedict Saturday. Hamline is scheduled to play at St. Catherine on Sunday (1 p.m. start)... unless Mother Nature intervenes. (St. Olaf also plays Augsburg Sunday).

For now, though, the Pipers can rejoice, knowing they will be playing next weekend.