Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — Ever since a pair of losses to St. Benedict on April 15, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team has had its backs to the walls in the Cardinals' quest for a spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament.

Sweeps of St. Olaf, Carleton and Augsburg kept those post-season hopes alive — and sweeps of Bethel on Saturday and Macalester on Sunday, and the Cardinals were a near lock to earn one of those coveted four tournament spots.

Game 1 against Bethel Saturday went according to the Cardinals' script as Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) tossed her second straight one-hitter, allowing just a first-inning single, leading SMU to a 3-0 victory.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, after that Game 1 loss, the Royals decided to throw away the script, erupted for four first-inning runs and two more in the second to take a 6-0 lead en route to a 6-4 victory.

"It was like everything that could go wrong did in that first inning," said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team still has hope of a post-season berth — but they are going to need some help. "We've been faced with must-win situations for two weeks now, so I don't think there was any more pressure on us (Saturday). I was proud of the way we battled back, we just ran out of time."

Trailing 6-0, SMU threatened in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but managed just an RBI single by Amy Edge (Mineral Point, Wis.). The Cardinals added an unearned run in the fifth to cut the Royals' lead to 6-2, then took advantage of two Bethel errors in the seventh to score two more, but the rally ended when pinch-runner Megan Schaar (Lake Villa, Ill.) was thrown out at the plate.

Schipp stole the show — again — in the opener, retiring the last 20 batters she faced after giving up a first-inning, lead-off single to Lindsay Norman. The Cardinals, meanwhile, scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Edge lifted a sacrifice fly to score Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) in the fourth, then doubled in Mandy Tschernach (Rice Lake, Wis.) in the fifth. Hanni Lohmann's RBI single accounted for SMU's sixth-inning run.