PORTLAND, Ore.—Senior Madison Scroggins came through with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh of both games on Wednesday, to lift Lewis & Clark College softball to a doubleheader sweep of visiting College of St. Benedict. 

THE BASICS 
 
Lewis & Clark 1, College of St. Benedict 0
Lewis & Clark College 2, College of St. Benedict 1
(Lewis & Clark 9-7) 
(College of St. Benedict 8-6) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
In a pair of games that felt more like NCAA Tournament action than mid-March non-conference play, Lewis & Clark used strong pitching and exceptional defense to close out non-conference play with a pair of wins. After starting non-conference play 1-5, the River Otters earned wins in their final three non-conference contests, to wrap up their hardest non-conference schedule in program history with a 5-7 mark. 
 
Scroggins proved to be the offensive hero in both games. The senior left fielder laced a single off the pitcher's glove in game one to score Makena Dahir and added a single through the left-side to score Lacey Marglin in game two. 
 
Senior pitcher Maggie O'Leary put together one of the best starts of her career and earned the wins in both games. Facing off against a red-hot Bennies offense, the senior ace threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout in game one and held the visitors to one run over 2.2 innings in game two. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
Game one was a pitcher's duel with Bennies ace Ellie Peterson matching O'Leary pitch for pitch until the bottom of the seventh inning. 
 
O'Leary limited the Bennies, who came into the doubleheader averaging eight runs per game, to just one hit and no walks across seven innings. She added five strikeouts to notch her fifth career shutout. 
 
Peterson held Lewis & Clark's offense to five hits and one walk across 6.2 innings. Junior Makena Dahir delivered the lone extra-base hit, a double, and scored the lone run of the game. First year Cici Fortuno, senior McKenna Zehnder, Scroggins and Marglin each added a base hit. 
 
Wednesday's first contest flew by with the teams playing seven innings in 77 minutes. 
 
Lewis & Clark put runners on in five of the first six innings but couldn't move a runner past second base until the seventh. 
 
The Bennies struggled to get anything past the River Otters defense. The trio in the middle of the infield of O'Leary, Emily Patton and Ozuna all made highlight reel plays and combined for nine assists and three putouts. O'Leary alone made four plays in the circle, including running forward to catch a pop-up with a shoestring catch just a foot or two away from home plate. 
 
The visitors posted their lone hit of the game in the top of the third. After O'Leary retired the first eighth batters, Olivia Van Hout lined a fly ball just in front of a diving Scroggins for a two-out double. The next batter would ground out to Ozuna at second to snuff out the visitors' lone rally of the game. 
 
Lewis & Clark earned the win in the bottom of the seventh. Dahir sliced a fly ball down the right-field line and easily raced into second. Zehnder followed with a sac bunt to put Dahir on third with just one out. After a ground out to third for the second out, Scroggins hit a one-hopper off the top of the pitcher's glove and beat the throw across the diamond to win the game. 
 
GAME TWO 


Both team's changed pitchers and created slightly more offense, but the second contest was close to a mirror image of the first, as Lewis & Clark claimed a walk-off win in another pitcher's duel. 
 
Lewis & Clark's Charlize Pope, Sammy Santa Ana and O'Leary held the College of St. Benedict to eight hits (seven singles), three walks and a hit by pitch. Pope went the opening two frames and allowed two hits across two scoreless frames. Santa Ana pitched the next 2.1 innings and gave up one hit, two walks and struck out two. O'Leary worked the final 2.2 and scattered five hits, one walk and one run. 
 
CSB senior Olivia Wallace allowed seven hits, one walk and two runs (one earned) over 6.1 innings to fall to 3-1 on the season. She added three strikeouts in the loss. 
 
Patton posted a team-high two hits for Lewis & Clark. First year Kodie Ancheta and Scroggins each added a hit and an RBI and Fortuno and Marglin each registered a hit and a run scored. 
 
Defensively, Ozuna turned two double plays to help Lewis & Clark get out of a pair of jams late in the game. 
 
After Pope stranded a runner on third in the top of the first, Lewis & Clark opened the scoring in the bottom of the inning. Fortuno beat out an infield single and raced to third base when Patton laced a single into left field and the ball bounced over the left fielder allowing both runners to move up 60 feet. Ancheta lifted a fly ball to medium left field and Fortuno was ruled safe at home after the ball bounced away from the catcher. 
 
The visitors recorded the first extra-base hit of the day to start the second inning and pinch-runner Elizabeth Gross reached third base with one out. Pope induced a line out to Zehnder at third and a pop up to Abby Yamashita at first to end the inning. 
 
The Bennies would put two runners on in the third, before St. Anna struck out All-Region catcher Bryn Ruhberg and induced a grounder on the left side that hit the lead runner to end the jam. 
 
O'Leary came on in the fifth inning with one out, a runner on first and the top of the order coming up. Lily Treml greeted O'Leary with a single through the left side but O'Leary induced a grounder to second and Ozuna tagged Treml and threw to first for an inning-ending double play. 
 
The visitors scored their only run of the game in the sixth. The Bennies used a hit by pitch and an infield single to put two on with two outs. Lauren Freeberg came through with an RBI double down the right-field line to score Adison Border but the Bennies were forced to hold Cat Smetana at third. O'Leary retired the next batter with a fly out to left to keep the score 1-1. 
 
Patton opened the sixth with a single and moved over to third with two outs but Wallace handled a comebacker to the mound to send the game to the seventh. 
 
The College of St. Benedict looked assured of taking the lead in the top of the seventh. The first two batters reached on a single and a double and Lewis & Clark intentionally walked All-Region shortstop Olivia Tautges to load the bases. O'Leary retired the next batter on a pop up to short for the first out. Mary Schmidt followed with a ground ball to Ozuna at second and the senior chased the runner at first back to the bag, tagged her and then stepped on first for an unassisted double play. 
 
Lewis & Clark needed just three batters to walk it off in the bottom of the inning. Marglin led off with a single to shallow center. Yamashita moved Marglin over to second with a sac bunt. Scroggins sent a single through the left side and Marglin slid in just ahead of the tag from the left fielder for a 2-1 win. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• The River Otters improved to 6-0 this season at home and moved to two games over .500 on the season for the first time this season. They moved over .500 in game one (8-7) for the first time since they won their season opener (1-0). 
• Scroggins posted the first and second walk-off hits of her career. 2025 graduate Sam Gildersleeve had posted the last walk-off hit for Lewis & Clark at the Huston Sports Complex on April 13, 2024 against Pacific Lutheran University. 
• Lewis & Clark held Tautges, who came into the game hitting .600, to an 0-5 day with two walks. 
• Patton moved into the top-five in program history in career hits (147) with her two hits in game two. She passed Ena Eakin ('92) and Hannah Dal Pra ('16) to move into fourth all-time. 
• The River Otters have held an opponent to one hit in two of their six home games this season. Santa Ana allowed just one hit against Whitworth on March 8 in a five-inning, mercy-rule win. 
• After posting a 6.86 ERA in their opening trip to California, the River Otters have combined for a 1.24 ERA across their last 10 games. Pope (0.00 in 13.0 innings), Santa Anna (0.48 in 14.2 innings), junior Ryan Jurischk (1.40 in 5.0 innings) and O'Leary (1.63 in 34.1 innings) have all pitched to a sub 2.00 ERA over the last three weeks. 
• The River Otters defense has also seen a marked improvement. The team committed 14 errors in their first six games but have posted just four errors in their last 10 games.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will have a few days off, before returning to Northwest Conference play next week. The River Otters will play eight conference games next week beginning on Tuesday when they travel to take on Pacific Lutheran University at Noon and 2 p.m.