OMAHA, Neb. – A home run barrage in game one and a pitching gem in game two lifted College of Saint Mary to a much-needed softball sweep on Tuesday.

Ella Watts, Maria Perez and Amber Kosmicki bashed solo home runs in the same inning in the opener, and Kosmicki also belted a grand slam later in an 11-3, five-inning win. Megan Garcia went the distance in game two, allowing just one earned run in a 3-1 victory to complete the sweep of Waldorf University in their Great Plains Athletic Conference doubleheader on Spirit of Service Collection Day at the CSM complex.

The Flames improved to 9-28 overall and 7-13 in GPAC play, while the Warriors dropped to 3-28 and 1-13. CSM kept alive its hopes of reaching the GPAC tournament, which takes the top eight teams in the standings.

"Obviously, this was a much-needed two wins for us, to keep ourselves in the playoff hunt,'' CSM Coach Carolyn Todd Bray said.

In the opener, Watts led off the third inning with a solo homer to right, her team-leading seventh of the season, for a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Perez homered to right to make it 3-0. Kosmicki was up next, and she delivered her fifth homer of the year to right-center, pushing the lead to 4-0.

One inning later, Kosmicki came up with the bases loaded and smacked her sixth round-tripper of the year, a grand slam, to make it 8-3. In the fifth, Shaylynn Campbell lined a two-run single for a 10-3 lead. Watts later scampered home on a wild pitch to end the game on the mercy rule.

"Those four home runs were obviously huge, but the other thing was before that was that we had successfully gotten all of our sac bunts down,'' Bray said. "It's great to see us swinging well. I thought Shay pitched a great game as well.''

Campbell went the distance and allowed no earned runs, scattering six hits while striking out six and walking one. Kosmicki ended 2 for 3 with five RBIs. Watts finished 3 for 3 with four runs scored and an RBI, while Campbell was 2 for 4 with three RBIs.

In a snappy game two that took just 59 minutes, Campbell drove in a run in the first inning and another came home on an error. Campbell added her second RBI and second hit in the third inning to score Watts, who had doubled.

Garcia allowed seven hits and one earned run to pick up her third win in her last four starts.

"Haley Anderson had a really big diving catch in right field,'' Bray said. "Megan and Paige (Stuck) as the battery did a great job. Paige is just so good at framing and blocking, and just does a great job of managing the game from behind the plate. It's great to have Megan pitching really well at this point in the year.''

The Flames return to action Monday for a nonconference doubleheader at Graceland University at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.