Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore

WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team 13 innings to score their first run in the Cardinals Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Gustavus Tuesday afternoon.

It took the Cardinals exactly three batters to score their first run Wednesday.

And by the tim the dust had settled, the Cardinals had scored 19 more times as SMU pushed its winning streak to three straight with a 9-4, 11-1 sweep of Bethel at the SMU Field.

"We needed these wins," said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, not only referring to the Cardinals' offensive onslaught — which came on the heels of a 5-0, 3-1 split with Gustavus Tuesday — but also noting that the wins kept SMU's faint MIAC title hopes alive. "We needed our offense to get back on track, we needed to get a lot of people involved so that they would all stay sharp, and most importantly, we just needed the wins."

SMU improved to 11-3 in the MIAC with eight conference games remaining — including Saturday's showdown with unbeaten and league-leading St. Thomas.

"We know what we have to do — win games," said Fennern. "And to do that, we need our offense to continue to produce the way it did today, and we need to continue to get solid pitching."

Those two proved to be a lethal one-two combination for the Cardinals against Bethel.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opener, scoring three runs in the first, four in the second  highlighted by Amy Edge's (Mineral Point, Wis.) three-run home run — and twice in the third.

Bethel managed a pair of runs in both the fourth and fifth off SMU pitchers Hanni Lohmann (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.), but it was not nearly enough.

SMU's bats continued to sizzle in the nightcap, as the Cardinals sent 12 batters to the plate, collected eight hits, and scored seven runs — in the first inning. The Cardinals added three more in the second and one in the third to make things very easy for SMU pitcher Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.).

Schipp gave up a lone run in the first en route to her second win of the season. She struck out one and scattered eight hits.

"We did a lot of things well," said Fennern, whose team returns to action Thursday, traveling to St. Catherine for their third MIAC doubleheader in as many days. "But the key now is coming out (Thursday) and doing them all over again."