St. Thomas softball has brought some of the southern heat with them into conference play. The defending Summit League champions are 4-1 in the conference and sitting in second place.
The Tommies bounced around the South this offseason, picking up wins against teams like Boise State and South Florida, and close losses against No. 25 Southeastern Louisiana and No. 2 Alabama.
“We do like to play tough competition, you know, in the non-conference because I just think that the game is challenging enough,” coach Jennifer Trotter said. “But if you put yourself up against the biggest challenges, it kind of normalizes some things. And I think that it’s important to be tested.”
St. Thomas finished its pre-Summit League portion of the season with a 16-9 record, its best start in the Division I era.
“To be able to come out and compete with those teams when they have elite pitching and elite hitting. It shows what we are capable of,” senior outfielder Avery Wukawitz said.
Wukawitz leads the team with a .398 batting average and 1.327 on-base percentage among those with at least 15 at bats. She’s also knocked 11 home runs.
St. Thomas won the conference title last season alongside Omaha and if they repeat, they’ll earn the first seed in the league tournament in the team’s first year it is eligible to play in it.
“The thing that you have to lean on is hoping that they stay focused on what preparation is like, and what they need to do in order to be prepared, to play good competition and make our way through the conference,” Trotter said.
The Tommies are also one of the most experienced rosters in the league with a graduate student, nine seniors and four juniors.
“You have a lot of returners and a lot of experience, but also a lot of people in the conference have seen them a lot of times,” Trotter said.
UST swept Kansas City to open its portion of the season March 20-22. Senior pitcher Ella Cook posted a .545 BA and .583 OBP at the plate, while posting a 1.62 earned run average across 8.2 innings on the mound that week.
This earned Cook the conference Peak Performer of the week award.
St. Thomas was originally supposed to host its first game of the home series against South Dakota on Friday, but it was postponed to Saturday because of cold weather. It was a feels-like temperature of 24 degrees Fahrenheit when the game was supposed to start Friday.
On Saturday the Tommies were finally able to play on South Field, and once again fans found viewing areas in the stands, outfield and even the parking ramp.
Cook pitched a shutout, giving St. Thomas a 9-0 win over the Coyotes in game one. UST is one of the best pitching teams in the Summit League, leading with a conference-low 2.34 ERA.
A host of Tommies also delivered at the plate in game one. The team is batting .299 and has a .404 OBP, second and third in the league, respectively.
UST’s defense didn’t hold up as strong in game two. South Dakota won 6-3, thanks to sophomore shortstop Sara Iburg’s three RBIs.
St. Thomas graduate shortstop Laken Lienhard poked a two-run homer in the fifth inning, but the Tommies ultimately split Saturday’s doubleheader.
The rubber match will be at noon Sunday on South Field.
“I’m really excited to see what we have in April, you know? Our team is mature, and our team has kind of seen it all. So I think we’ve got a lot of things to put together, and there’s a lot of possibility for us coming up in the spring,” Wukawitz said
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.
