SIOUX FALLS – With Kaitlyn Van Der Zwaag throwing a five-inning no-hitter and an offense combining for 26 runs and 26 hits, the University of Sioux Falls Softball Team (17-16, 11-8 NSIC) swept a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader over U-Mary, 15-0, and 11-2 on Saturday at Sherman Park.  

With the pair of victories today, USF has now won five of their last six games played and sit 17-16 overall and 11-8 for eighth place in the NSIC standings.  

USF Head Coach Shannon Pivovar was pleased with her team's continuing growth and performance on the field.

"Another fun day for our Cougar family. We played well together on both sides of the ball - but were carried today by our bats," said Pivovar, whose team will continue a 10-game home stand by hosting Minot State on Sunday at 1/3 pm at Sherman Park. "We made adjustments at the plate and continued to focus on doing it together and it was evident with the way we trusted ourselves and our teammates. I'm proud of our starters for getting things going, but then when we put in pinch hitters and made defensive changes, our team was so locked in they just kept it rolling," said Pivovar of USF, which had a season-best total of 26 runs and 26 hits in a doubleheader. "Can't wait to play another couple games tomorrow!"

Van Der Zwaag, who threw her first career no-hitter, was part of a pitching staff, who had a combined 1.40 earned run average in the circle today. Van Der Zwaag had eight strikeouts in five innings. Hanna Cress allowed two runs on three hits and had three strikeouts. At the plate, USF hit .520 with 26 hits in 50 at bats and had 10 extra bases hits, including home runs by Lexie Swift and Mika Rodriguez. Fourteen players had hits led by Kylan Straight, who was 5-of-5 with two doubles, a triple and RBI. She had a 1.800 slugging mark and .833 OBP and pushed her seson average to .324. Kylie Madrid, Rachel Klassen, Shayla Running, Kaitlyn Van Der Zwaag,, Cassie Van Beek, Mika Rodriguez and Emmie Uitts had two hits. Freshman Danielle Klenke had her first career hit, a three-run double. Megan Lawson had her first two hits at USF while Emily Cheloha had her first hit of the season.

Game One - USF 15 Mary 0 

In the opener, the story was Kaitlyn Van Der Zwaag, who shut down U-Mary as she had her first-career no-hitter and registered eight strikeouts. Van Der Zwaag was just one defensive error from a perfect game. As good as she was in the circle, the rest of the team was at the plate. The Cougars scored four runs in the opening inning and added nine runs in the third frame and two in the fourth inning as the game ended by run rule.

 From the batter's box, Kennedy Thomas, Mika Rodriguez and Kaitlyn Van Der Zwaag hit run-scoring hits for USF in the first inning, giving them a lead. Shayla Running, Emmie Uitts, and Kylie Madrid all had run-scoring hits as well, followed up by a three-run double from Freshman Danielle Klenke to give the Cougars a 13-0 advantage over Mary after three innings. Hanna Cress hit the RBI ground out that brought home Damaris Cuevas as the Cougar registered a season-high 15 runs. With nine runs in the third inning, USF now has had three innings of eight or more runs this season. In the victory, USF had hits from 11 players and runs were scored by 14 players with Van Der Zwaag the only one to score twice.

Game Two - USF 11 UMary 2

In game two, USF had another quality start from Hanna Cress (8-8) and the offense scored all 11 runs from the third to fifth innings and earned a 11-2 win.

The USF offense was led by Kylan Straight with three hits and two runs scored. Cassie Van Beek had two hits and two RBI. Emily Cheloha, Mika Rodriguez, Rachel Klassen and Kylie Madrid each had a hit and two RBI. Lexie Swift had a home run and three runs scored.

In the circle, Cress moved to 8-8 on the season and lowered her earned run average to 3.05 by limiting Mary to three hits and two runs while striking out three. She now has 90 strikeouts on the season.

After U-Mary opened the scoring with a run in the first frame, USF broke it open with four runs in the third inning, three more in the fourth frame and four in the fifth inning which ended by run rule with one outs in the inning.

In the third inning, Swift hit her first home run of the season and the fourth of her career. Later in the inning, senior shortstop Mika Rodriguez also homered with her two-run shot providing a 4-1 lead. For Rodriguez, she hit her team-high fourth home run of the year and 17th of her career.

USF built a 7-2 lead over U-Mary after Rachel Klassen had a run-scoring single and Cassie Van Beek added a two-run double. USF ended the game in the fifth frame as Madrid had a two-run single which was followed by Cheloha's two-run single which scored Madrid and Swift and ended the game.