Millikin Box Score / Central-Iowa Box Score / Coe Box Score / Wartburg Box Score

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team learned a lot about itself during last weekend's Washington University Tournament.

The Cardinals also learned a lot about the rest of the teams they could face if the Cardinals are to make a run at a third straight NCAA Division III national tournament.

Every team the Cardinals faced during the three-day tournament — Millikin, Central-Iowa, Wartburg and Coe — are teams in SMU's region, meaning SMU's run for a national-tournament threepeat could very well have to go through one or more of those teams.

"This was a great tournament for us to be in — we had the opportunity to play four games against four very tough opponents," said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team posted a 3-1 mark. "Not only was it great competition, but it also gave us a good idea what the rest of the region is going to be like."

In a word — tough.

The Cardinals managed to pick up three wins in their four games — beating Millikin 2-1, Coe 4-3 and Wartburg 1-0. SMU's lone loss, however, was a 2-0 setback to Central-Iowa in a game that SMU failed to get a hit, and managed just two base runners, neither of which got past second base.

"Right now, Central is definitely the team to beat," conceded Fennern. "They don't score a lot of runs, but they've got two of the best pitchers in the country in Libby Hysell and April Miller. Libby pitched a great game against us, but it was the type of game that, on a different day, the outcome certainly could have been different.

"We know it's going to be an uphill climb (to reach the regional and national tournaments), but I think we proved over the weekend that we can play with the anybody."

But it wasn't easy.

SMU needed a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to edge Millikin, then rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Coe, and rode the 14-strikeout pitching of Stacy O'Malley (Lake Elmo, Minn.) to their win over Wartburg.

"Every game we played in was pressure-packed, and I thought we handled ourselves very well in some difficult situations," said Fennern, whose team improved to 7-3 overall. "Obviously I'd like to have the Central game back, but overall I'm very happy with the way we played."