St. Thomas, Augustana softball teams qualify for Women's College World Series

Two region teams — St. Thomas in NCAA Division III and Augustana in Division II — won Friday to reach the Women's College World Series (CWS) in their respective divisions.

No. 3 St. Thomas defeated Wisconsin-La Crosse 4-0 and 5-0 in the first two games of best-of-three super regional at South Field in St. Paul. Junior Kierstin Anderson-Glass pitched 14 shutout innings and Chase Shortly drove in five runs.

For the third time in the past six years, the Tommies (43-5) advance to the national tournament, held this year from Thursday to May 28 in Tyler, Texas.

No. 15 Augustana of Sioux Falls, S.D., scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge No. 1 Central Oklahoma 7-6 to win the best-of-three series in Edmond, Okla. Shannon Petersen — who hit a homer earlier — singled to drive in the tying run, and Samantha Eisenreich, a senior from St. Cloud, followed with a walkoff RBI single.

The Division II CWS will be held from Thursday to May 27 in Denver.

Northwestern scored seven runs in the fifth inning in beating the Gophers 10-3 on Friday in a Big Ten baseball game in Evanston, Ill.

Freshman Zack Raabe went 4-for-5, with a pair of doubles, and drove in a run in the ninth inning for Minnesota (25-26, 14-9 Big Ten). Jack Wassel hit a solo homer for the Gophers' first run in the seventh inning.

Wild forward Luke Kunin was added to the U.S. national team roster and joined the team in Slovakia, where it is participating in the world championships. Kunin's season ended when the Iowa Wild was eliminated from the AHL playoffs. He had six goals in 11 playoff games at Iowa after scoring six goals in 49 games with the Wild.

The former University of Wisconsin standout was captain of the U.S. junior national team when it won a gold medal in 2017.

The U.S. team is 3-1 in the tournament so far and has three preliminary round games remaining, including one against Denmark on Saturday.

Dean Williamson and daughter Taylor Williamson will be co-head coaches of the Wayzata girls' hockey program, the school announced.

Dean played three seasons on the Gophers hockey team. Taylor won the Ms. Hockey Award playing for Edina in 2015 and also played at Minnesota, where she was a senior this past season.

Top-seeded Augustana (S.D.) rallied to beat Arkansas-Monticello 9-4 on the second day of the NCAA Division II Central Region baseball tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. Will Olson had a sacrifice fly and a two-run homer for the defending national champion Vikings (42-14).

Augustana trailed 6-0 on Thursday before beating Oklahoma Baptist 12-10.