Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore

WINONA, Minn. — It was supposed to be the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team's final tune-up before the inaugural Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.

Instead, Tuesday's nonconference doubleheader against UW-La Crosse was the final without the tune-up — the final games of what proved to be a rollercoaster season.

Not to mention the final games in the collegiate careers for SMU's Amy Langer (Savage, Minn.), Hanni Lohmann (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Holly Cormican (Glenwood City, Minn.).

And the Cardinals made that season finale a memorable one — riding the three-hit pitching of Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) to a 4-0 win in the opener, then getting a one-out, bases-loaded sacrifice fly off the bat of Schipp to secure a 5-4 Game 2 win.

"This was a nice way for the season to come to an end," said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team closes out its season with a 27-15 overall record. "We had hopes of playing in the (MIAC) tournament, and that didn't happen, which was unfortunate. But instead of hanging our heads and feeling sorry for ourselves, we cane out today and played two very good games.

"La Crosse is a solid team, and these were two quality wins for us," continued Fennern. "It's been an up-and-down season for us, and today was a perfect example of that."

You can say that again.

The Eagles managed just three hits off Schipp in the opener — lead-off singles in the first and sixth, and a one-out single in the seventh — as the SMU sophomore posted her seventh shutout of the season.

SMU, meanwhile, banged out 10 hits against a pair of UW-L pitchers, scoring once in the second — on an RBI single by Schipp — twice in the fifth on Amy Lang's (Oshkosh, Wis.) two-run double, and once in the sixth when Schipp scored on Mandy Tschernach's (Rice Lake, Wis.) infield single.

Then came Game 2, where the teams decided to play a little role-reversal.

UW-L collected 13 hits off Schipp in the nightcap, while SMU managed just six hits off two Eagle pitchers.

SMU scored first with a solo run in the first, but the Eagles responded with one in the second and two in the fourth to take a 3-1 advantage. SMU retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the fourth — two coming on Krista Conway's (Mendota Heights, Minn.) two-run double and the other on an RBI single by Langer.

The Eagles pulled even with one run in the sixth, before SMU loaded the bases with no one out in the bottom of the seventh, and, after Eagles' pitcher Alli Romoren got Regan Cahanes (Woodbury, Minn.) to pop out, Schipp lifted a ball to deep center, easily scoring Tschernach from third.

"We needed those two wins," admitted Fennern. "One, it's a nice way to send our seniors out, and two, it's a positive way for us to head into the off-season and into next year. This was a very young team, and the experience they gained this year will be invaluable next season.

"We're still going to be a young team next year — but young in age, not experience, which will be a huge plus for us."