St. Bonifacius, Minn. – In what is easily the biggest day in the history of the Crown College softball program, the Storm clinched the #4 seed in the UMAC postseason tournament in style, sweeping Bethany Lutheran and Martin Luther in a UMAC Crossover event to run their conference record to 11-10.  Crown will travel to Duluth this weekend where they will open the tournament against #1 seed St. Scholastica on Friday.

Needing just a Martin Luther loss to Minnesota Morris or one victory in their two games, the Storm didn't back in to the postseason, winning both games and putting an exclamation point on a remarkable regular season that now includes the first playoff berth in the NCAA Division III era.

Just minutes after Morris did topple Martin Luther, clinching the playoffs for Crown, the Storm took care of business on their own, beating Bethany Lutheran on a walk-off RBI single by Number 26.
 
In what was a classic pitcher's duel, reigning UMAC Pitcher of the Week Cearra Dulaney outmatched UMAC strikeout champ Anna Pipenhagen.  The Vikings's freshman struck out six over six and two-thirds, but was matched by Dulaney who struck out four while allowing just six hits over seven strong innings.

Crown got off to a rough start in the field, surrendering two runs in the top of the first while committing a couple errors.  True to form, the team made up for their mistakes with some fantastic defensive plays the rest of the way, cutting down a runner at the plate and recording an outfield assist behind Dulaney.

Crown tied things in the bottom of the third with some hard fought two out hits.  26, Kate McLaughlin, and Sofia Palacios strung together three fantastic at-bats, getting three straight singles to knot things up at 2-2.

The score would remain constant until the bottom of the seventh inning when Moriah Sawyer reached on a close play at first base before stealing second and advancing to third when the throw went into center field.  That brought 26, who finished the regular season hitting .403 to the plate, with another two-out chance for the Storm.

The freshman made no mistake, lining a single to left that scored Sawyer and sent the celebration spilling down the first base line.

Both Number 26 and Palacios collected two hits and an RBI as Crown scored all three of their runs with two outs.

With their postseason tickets punched, Crown turned their attention to their final game of the regular season with a winning UMAC record on the line. 

Crown rung up a 9-0 lead through the top half of the fifth before Martin Luther extended things with a pair of two out runs in the bottom half.  Each team would score once more, but the seven-inning final would read 10-3, putting Crown's conference record at 11-10.

Sarah Petkau earned the win from the circle, throwing four and two thirds innings of two-hit ball.

Crown had 10 different players record a hit with head coach Jamie Ross getting 17 different players into the game.  That group was led by 26, Petkau, and Marissa Becerra who all collected two hits.  Petkau and Cassidy Valenzuela each had two RBI.

The Storm are riding a five game winning streak as they prepare to face undefeated St. Scholastica in the first game of the conference tournament.  The other side of the double-elimination bracket will feature Northwestern and Minnesota Morris.

Visit CSSsaints.com or umacathletics.com for information on the upcoming UMAC softball tournament, where an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament is up for grabs.