The Hamline softball team grabbed an early lead, stretched it in the middle of the game and widened it at the end, defeating St. Catherine, 7-0, in the first round of the MIAC tournament being played at St. Thomas. Alex Molloy threw a dazzling three-hotter as HU improved to 24-15 on the season with their fifth straight win and 11th in their last 12 games. 

HU wasted no time putting the Wildcats on the defensive. In the top of the first, Kira Krueger tripled and came home on Riley Husom's two out single. The 1-0 lead held until the fifth frame. Krueger drew an one out walk. After fouling some pitches off, Megan Rubbelke straightened one out over the left field fence for her team high fourth home run of the season and a 3-0 lead. 

The Pipers broke the game wide open in the seventh. 10 batters came to the plate with four of them scoring. Krueger, Husom, Delaney Kohler (who had three of the 11 HU hits in the game) and Ramsey Hare all knocked in runs to put the game out of reach. Molloy, who retired 16 batters in a row at one point, finished things off to improve to 18-7 on the season with an impressive 1.68 ERA. The sophomore walked none and induced 15 ground ball outs for her 19th complete game and fourth shutout of the season. 

Hamline will face host St. Thomas at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 4 at the latter's playpen. The teams split a doubleheader on April 5 with HU winning by a 5-1 count and the Tommies replying with an 8-5 decision. The winner of that game goes to Sunday's 11:00 a.m. championship game. The loser comes back at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday to face the winner of the St. Catherine-St. Olaf game set for 1:30 p.m. The Oles lost a 1-0 decision to UST to open the double elimination tournament.