Boxscore
ORANGE, Calif. — As consistent as the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team has been during its first four games of the Sun West Tournament, the Cardinals were equally inconsistent on Tuesday.
After banging out 19 hits in their split of games vs. Dana and Tufts Monday, the Cardinals managed just nine against Eastern Oregon and St. Scholastica combined — and still came away with a split.
Eastern Oregon hammered 13 hits and scored in every run but the fourth en route to a 10-2 rout of the Cardinals in Tuesday's first game, but SMU, despite collecting four hits off NAIA All-American Laura Heise, bounced back in the second game, beating St. Scholastica 8-2 in a game shortened to five innings by rain.
"It was an up-and-down day," understated SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team moved to 4-2 overall with their second split in the last two days. "We did not play well at all in the first game. Eastern Oregon is a very good team, but they aren't eight runs better than we are, that's for sure.
"I was very happy with the way we bounced back from that loss," continued Fennern. "We took advantage of St. Scholastica's defensive troubles (the Saints committed six errors) and got back in the win column — which was very important."
Eastern Oregon jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first inning and never looked back, adding single runs in the second and third, before icing the six-inning win with two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth.
Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) and Amy Edge (Montfort, Wis.) accounted for four of SMU's five hits, as the two both went 2-for-3, with Edge and Krista Conway (Mendota Heights, Minn.) driving in the Cardinals' two runs.
Against the Saints, SMU broke a 2-2 first-inning tie with one run in the third, two in the fourth — on Jess Weisbrod's (Rollingstone, Minn.) first collegiate home run — and three in the fifth.
Gutterman was perfect at the plate, going 2-for-2 with a stolen base, while Conway was 1-for-3 with an RBI and Mandy Tschernach (Rice Lake, Wis.) stole three bases.
"I was a little disappointed with our performance in the first game, but I was extremely happy with the way we bounced back — especially against a quality pitcher like Heise," said Fennern. "Hopefully we can carry that performance over into our next games (on Thursday at Whittier)."
