BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 YOUNGSVILLE, La. – The Augustana softball team opened its 2024 season Thursday at the Mardi Gras Invitational taking place in Youngsville, Louisiana. The Vikings topped No. 22 Oklahoma Baptist in the season's opening game. In the second game, AU fell 8-0 to No. 13 Southern Arkansas.
 
Game One: Augustana 4, No. 22 Oklahoma Baptist 0
Augustana scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning and added two more in the fifth enroute to the shutout victory.
 
Grace Glanzer, making her Augustana debut, shutdown the Bison with a complete game effort by allowing just two hits. She struck out six while not allowing a walk.
 
Andrea Cain drew an opening walk to lead off the bottom of the first and advanced to second as Desi Cuevas was hit by a pitch. Torri Chute, the reigning NSIC Player of the Year doubled the duo in for the 2-0 lead.
 
In the fifth inning, Gracey Brink doubled into left field to open the inning. Kennedy Buckman, the 2023 NSIC leader in home runs, then belted a home run into right-center field for the 4-0 lead.
 
With Glanzer holding down the circle, that was more than enough offense to give AU the 4-0 victory.
 
Game Two: No. 13 Southern Arkansas 8, Augustana 0
Augustana's offense struggled to get moving in the day's second game in an 8-0 setback to No. 13 Southern Arkansas.
 
The Vikings tallied four hits in the game but eight hits, including four home runs, doomed AU. Southern Arkansas, the home team on the scoreboard in the day's second game, hit a three-run home run in the second, recorded a pair of home runs in the third, and hit a two-run home run in the fifth for the eight runs.
 
Augustana's four hits came from the bats of Torri Chute, Kennedy Buckman, Grace Glanzer and Ashton Dorman.
 
Up Next
The schedule doesn't get any easier for Augustana as the Vikings face No. 3 Central Oklahoma Friday at 2 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., the Vikings face Tuskegee for the first time in program history.