Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn. — It was like watching her worst fears come to life right before her eyes.
Fresh off six straight wins against three of the top teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Nikki Fennern was concerned about a letdown when her team returned home Wednesday afternoon to take on St. Olaf.
And, staring at a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Cardinals were doing a good job of making those concerns a reality.
Enter Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.).
Gutterman laced a bases-loaded, three-run triple to right field, erasing the Cardinals' 2-0 deficit and propelling SMU to a 10-2, six-inning Game 1 victory.
Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) and the rest of the Cardinals made life a little easier in the nightcap as Jung belted a first-inning grand slam, and SMU finished with a four-home run performance in completing the sweep with a 10-6 win.
"We had a few too many mental errors in the second game, but anytime you can get a sweep in this conference you have to be happy," said Fennern, whose team led 9-1 heading into the fifth inning of the nightcap before letting the Oles back into the game. "Hopefully everyone learned a valuable lesson today. We can't afford to take anyone lightly. We have to come to the field prepared to play at the top of our game every single day.
"We didn't do that today, and it nearly cost us."
St. Olaf scored single runs in the second and third innings off SMU starter Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) in the opener, and were cruising along — until the bottom of the fifth.
A pair of St. Olaf errors and a bunt single by Mandy Tschernach (Rice Lake, Wis.) loaded the bases for SMU in the fifth, before Gutterman delivered her bases-clearing triple to give the Cardinals the lead for good. Schipp — who went 3-for-3 from the plate to go along with her five-inning, 12-strikeout effort on the mound — added an RBI double to make it 4-2. A single and a walk reloaded the bases for Jung, we belted a two-run single to left, and Regan Cahanes (Woodbury, Minn.) followed with a two-run double of her own to push SMU's lead to 8-2.
"We have been notorious this season for playing flat, flat, flat, and then having a huge inning," said Fennern. "I guess today was no different."
SMU didn't waste any time putting together its "huge" inning in Game 2, as Jung's grand slam — her first collegiate HR — highlighted the Cardinals' six-run first inning. Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) added a two-run HR in the SMU first, while Schipp delivered a solo shot in the second and Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) launched her first collegiate round-tripper — a two-run blast — in the third.
"When we jumped out to that big lead in the second game, we kind of let our guard down a bit — mentally we weren't as sharp after that," said Fennern, whose team pushed its season-high winning streak to 12 straight with the sweep. "But, on a positive note, we were able to get a lot of people some very valuable playing experience, which will only help us down the road."
