Box Score

WAVERLY, Iowa — Ask any collegiate coach and you'll get the same answer — defending a national title is no easy task.

The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team is just making it look that way.

The Cardinals, behind the pitching of surprise starter Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.) and the hitting of Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Annie Hovde (Cottage Grove, Minn.), bounced top-seeded Wartburg 1-0 Sunday, extending their post-season unbeaten streak to 10 straight — and, more importantly, earning SMU a second straight trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament

“What a game,” was all SMU first-year coach Nikki Fennern could say after watching her Cardinals sweep through the NCAA Midwest Regional with a perfect 3-0 record for the second consecutive year. “Our players have played in so many pressure-packed situations, that this game was no big deal to them.”

Neither was a return trip to the national tournament.

“Our goal all year has been to get back there,” said Fennern. whose team opens play against the Bridgewater Regional champion Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Eau Claire, Wis. “And we're determined to go out there and do our best to defend that title. Some expect us to win, some don't — we're just going to go out there, have some fun, and do the best we can.”

If their performance at the regional tournament is any indication, the Cardinals at their best is the worst news the rest of the eight-team national tournament field could hear.

“Our goal is to go out and play at the top of our game every time we step on the field,” said Hocking, who went 2-for-3 against Wartburg and scored the game's only run in the top of the fourth inning. “We we pitch, field and hit the way we are capable, we can eight-run any team in the nation.”

Wartburg certainly can attest to that.

While the Cardinals didn't exactly eight-run the top-seeded Knights, it wasn't for a lack of effort.

SMU battered Wartburg pitcher Kelley Foley for nine hits, and had at least one runner on base in all but two innings — including a bases-loaded with one out situation in the sixth.

“I have to give Wartburg a lot of credit, they didn't crack under the pressure of playing in their first regional tournament,” said Fennern, whose team enters the national tournament wtih a 34-6 record, having won six straight and 28 of their last 29 games. “We hit their pitcher hard. But there were a number of innings where a big defensive play (by the Knights) kept us out of a big inning.”

Like in the third inning, where Jennifer Meyer (Oconomowoc, Wis.) lined out to shortstop Julie Medhus, who tossed to second from her knees to double off Ann Munzenmaier (Urbandale, Iowa). Or in the fourth, where Gina Rizzardi (Woodbury, Minn.) was thrown out at the plate, thwarting what could have been a big inning for SMU. Or in the sixth, when SMU loaded the bases with one out, only to have Meyer tossed out at the plate for the second out, and Niki Lynch robbed of a base hit by a diving Betsy Girsch, who threw out the speedy Lynch to end the inning.

Yet, while Wartburg continued to dodge bullet after bullet from the Cardinals' six-shooter, Gonerka put a silencer on the Knights' bats, setting Wartburg down in order in the first four innings, before yielding singles in the fifth and sixth innings. Hocking came on to get the final out of the sixth, and got out of a two-out, runners on second and third jam to seal the win in the seventh.

“Wartburg hadn't seen much of Jennifer (in the team's first meeting, SMU's 8-3 victory in Saturday's winner's bracket game), and they struggled to catch up to her pitches,” explained Fennern of her decision to start Gonerka over Game 1 and 2 starter, Hocking. “With either of our pitchers, when they are hitting their spots, they're tough to beat. Maybe it was just a hunch — I just thought it was the right time to start (Gonerka).”

“I wasn't nervous, probably because I didn't have time to get nervous,” admitted Gonerka, who found out she was going to make her first career regional start less than two hours before the Cardinals took the field. “I just tried to approach it like it was any other game — just make sure to hit my spots and know that if (Wartburg) did hit the ball, our defense would get the job done.”

The Cardinals scored the game's only run in the fourth as Hocking led off with a single and advanced to second when Foley decided to try and force her out at second on a comebacker off the bat of Rizzardi. Jackie Huegel moved the runners to second and third on a groundout to the pitcher, and Hovde drilled a liner off the glove of Foley and past a diving Girsch to scoring Hocking.

“Obviously, we're very happy to be going back to nationals,” Fennern said. “But we've also got some work to do — we're not going to be satisfied just getting back there.

“Our goal is to win it all again.”

Easier said than done.