SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana softball team added two more wins to its winning streak Monday with a sweep of Bemidji State. The Vikings had a pair of run-rule victories with a game one 17-0 win and a game two 11-3 victory at Sherman Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
Augustana has now won 19-straight games and improves to 38-7 on the season. Within the NSIC, AU is in first place with its 22-2 record. Bemidji State falls to 10-32, 7-15.
 
Game One: No. 12 Augustana 17, Bemidji State 0
After what could be considered a slow start in the contest with a 0-0 score after three complete, the floodgates opened in the fourth inning. The Vikings plated 13 runs in the fourth and added four more runs in the fifth.
 
The Vikings racked up 12 hits in the contest with two each from Mary Pardo, Delaney Young and Amanda Dickmeyer.
 
Augustana, known for its home run power, didn't hit its first home run until there were 10 runs on the scoreboard already. The first run of the game came on a Delaney Young single to score Abby Lien. In succession, the Vikings then plated nine more runs until Amanda Dickmeyer stepped to the plate for the second time in the fourth inning. The shortstop simply powered a three-run home run over the center-field fence.
 
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth inning, Mary Pardo led off the top of the fifth with her 21^st home run of 2022. The scoring concluded on a Delaney Young single and Gracey Brink home run to make it 17-0.
 
With so much offensive firepower, we don't want to lose the fact that Ashley Mickschl tossed four innings of two-hit ball to earn her 16^th win of the year. Makayla Williams pitched the final inning, picking up a strikeout.
 
Game Two: No. 12 Augustana 11, Bemidji State 3
Augustana got right to work in the opening frame, plating four runs thanks to homers from Abby Lien and Gracey Brink, along with an RBI double from Delaney Young. Lien's home run was a solo shot while Brink's was a two-run home run.
 
Bemidji State scratched a pair of runs across the plate in the bottom of the first, all without getting a hit, to make it 4-2 after one inning.
 
However, the Augustana offense fired right back in the top of the second as Pardo doubled to score Amanda Dickmeyer. Lien then recorded a sacrifice fly to score Abbie Lund and it was 6-2 Vikings after two innings.
 
Pardo hit her 22^nd home run of the year, one shy of tying the school record for a single season, in the fourth inning. Four batters later, Delaney Young towered a three-run home run down the left-field line to make it 10-2.
 
The final Augustana run came courtesy of a Taylor Bross single down the right-field line to score Becca Koupal.
 
Bemidji State pieced together an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth but it was not enough to stop the Vikings' 13^th run-rule victory in the last 14 games. In addition, Augustana's winning streak is pushed to 19 games, a streak that is flipping back-and-forth as the nation's best with Washburn.
 
Augustana totaled 16 hits in the contest with three from Young and two each from Pardo, Lien and Brink. Young's three hits totaled four RBI while she scored two runs.
 
Up Next
Augustana travels to Marshall, Minnesota, on Thursday to face Southwest Minnesota State. The doubleheader, which begins at 2 p.m., will be the first time since April 3 that the Vikings will have played away from its home field.
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