Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
ST. PAUL, Minn — In the last 24 hours, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team faced a pair of teams that, combined, boasted a 13-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record.
And, when the Cardinals were finished with them, that record was 13-5.
Fresh off a 5-3, 9-1 victory over Gustavus — which entered last Wednesday's conference doubleheader with a perfect 6-0 mark — the Cardinals squared off against Hamline, a team with just one loss in eight MIAC contests.
Make that three losses.
Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) went 3-for-3 with a triple and drove in both SMU runs as SMU slipped to a 2-1 win in Game 1. The Cardinals left little doubt in the nightcap, scoring all six of their runs in the sixth inning en route to a sweep-clinching 6-0 victory.
The Cardinals broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning in the opener, as Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) doubled down the left-field line, moved to third on a ground out and scored on an RBI single by Close.
The Pipers tied the game, 1-1, in the bottom of the fifth, before SMU plated the eventual game-winner in the top of the sixth when laced a triple to right-center, scoring Regan Cahanes (Woodbury, Minn.).
Jenny Schipp picked up her fifth straight pitching victory, tossing a complete-game seven-hitter. The SMU senior walked one and struck out six to improve to 10-4 overall.
The Cardinals once again found themselves in a scoreless pitchers' duel in Game 2, before breaking through in the sixth. The Cardinals used five hits — including a two-run double by Nikki Jung (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and two-run, pinch-hit single by Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) — and three Hamline errors to score their six runs.
Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) picked up the Game 2 pitching win, throwing six innings of two-hit ball for her second win in as many days.
Offensively, SMU collected 20 hits in the doubleheader. Close picked up four hits in seven at-bats, while Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) went 5-for-9 and Mondo and Amy Edge (Montfort, Wis.) each chipped in three hits.
