Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It wasn't supposed to be like this.

The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader with Hamline having won three striaght – by a combined score of 23-8.

Add to that the fact the Cardinals had swept the Pipers in the teams' doubleheader a year ago — winning the opener 4-1, then coming within two batters of a perfect game in routing Hamline 10-0 in Game 2 — and Saturday's rematch should have been a walk in the park of the Cardinals.

Some walk.

SMU needed eight ininngs — scoring three times in the eighth — to break a 2-2 tie en route to a 5-2 win in Game 1. And if the Cardinals thought the Pipers were pesky in Game 1, they were in for a big surprise in Game 2, as Hamline's Joan Sheedy belted a game-winning, three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Pipers to an 8-5 victory and a split in the conference twinbill.

Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) and Lindsey Mamer (Mankato, Minn.) provided the offensive spark in SMU's Game 1 win, as Huegel was a perfect 3-for-3 with two triples and drove in three runs, whlie Mamer was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

The Cardinals scored a single run in the top of the second inning, but Hamline responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 advantage. SMU tied the game, 2-2, on Mamer's RBI double. The score remained tied until the eighth, when SMU sent seven batters to plate, scoring three times to ice the win.

Things weren't quite as smooth in the nightcap, however.

Hamline again took a 2-1, second-inning lead, before SMU took its first lead of the game with three runs in the top of the fifth, one coming on an RBI single by Jennifer Miller (Wiinona, Minn.), and the other two on a single by Mamer. Hamline pulled within one, 4-3, in the bottom of the fifth, and, after SMU scored once in the top of the sixth, tied it at 5-5 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

The Pipers then iced the win as Sheedy laced a one-out, three-run home run off SMU pitcher Stacy O'Malley (Lake Elmo, Minn.) in the bottom of the seventh.

Huegel and Mamer were again the offensive stars for SMU, as Huegel went 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Mamer was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs.