Boxscore
ORANGE, Calif. — California is known for one of the most popular rollercoasters in the United States — Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, located in the friendly confines of Disneyland.
Compared to the performance of the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, however, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was nothing more than a ride in a kiddie park.
For the fourth straight time in five Sun West Tournament days, the Cardinals split their two games Saturday afternoon — and split them in two very different ways.
The Cardinals opened play with an impressive 3-0 shutout win over Cornell (Iowa) in a game in which junior pitcher Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) scattered six hits and struck out seven, while the SMU defense was flawless, playing errorless ball for the second time this season.
Game 2, however, was as different as night and day, as SMU committed three errors — all resulting in unearned runs — managed just five hits, and failed to score until the seventh inning, when Nikki Jung's (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) two-run single plated the Cardinals' only two runs in a 7-2 loss to Biola (Calif.).
Mandy Tschernach (Rice Lake, Wis.) got SMU on the board vs. Cornell, belting an RBI single to score Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) from second,. The Cardinals then gave Schipp a pair of insurance runs in the top of the fifth as Tschernach delivered an RBI triple, scoring Close, then scoring herself on a throwing error by Cornell second baseman Jenny Raymond.
The Cardinals' offense wasn't as fortunate against Biola, as SMU was set down in order through the game's first four innings, managed a fifth-inning single by Jung, a sixth-inning single by Close, and a two-run single by Jung in the seventh.
Biola, meanwhile, tagged Schipp for six runs — three earned — on seven hits in 3.1 innings, while added their seventh run on one hit in 2.2 innings vs. Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.).
SMU, which finished with a 6-4 overall record during its 10 games in California, returns to action Wednesday, playing host to UW-River Falls in a nonconference game.
