Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Despite splitting Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheaders to Hamline, Gustavus, St. Catherine and Carleton, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball still held out hope — albeit it faint — of repeating as the conference's champions.

As long as the Cardinals swept their doubleheader with league-leading St. Thomas, and got a little help over the final week of the season, that second straight MIAC crown was still a possibility.

The only snag in that scenario, however, is that the Cardinals would have to beat the Tommies twice — something no other MIAC team has even been able to do once this season, as UST entered Monday's showdown with the Cardinals a perfect 16-0.

Unfortunately for SMU, the Tommies left Monday's doubleheader a perfect 18-0, as St. Thomas burst the Cardinals' conference championship bubble with a 5-1, 5-0 sweep.

The Tommies' twin-killing marked just the third time since the start of the 1996 season that SMU has been swept in a double header (1-0, 5-4 by Winona State on April 2, 2001, and 8-2, 3-2 by UW-Stout on April 11, 1996) — a span of 94 doubleheaders.

St. Thomas (18-0 MIAC, 31-5 overall) scored early and often in rolling to the win in Game 1, plating a pair of runs in each of the first two innings to take a 4-0 advantage. SMU (14-6 MIAC, 23-11 overall) got its lone run in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Niki Lynch (Winona, Minn.), but UST regained its four-run lead with a solo run i the bottom of the sixth.

As quiet as the SMU bats were in the opener — the Cardinals managed just five hits, all singles by five different players — they were even quieter in Game 2, as UST pitcher Andrea Sweeney held Saint Mary's to just one hit, a one-out single by Ann Munzenmaier (Urbandale, Iowa) in the sixth inning. St. Thomas, meanwhile, banged out nine hits off SMU pitchers Stacy O'Malley (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Lindsay Mamer (Mankato, Minn.), scoring once in the second, twice in the third and twice in the fifth.