Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn, — Like any collegiate coach, Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Nikki Fennern was a little worried about Tuesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Bethel.
Fennern's concerns, however, had nothing to do with the Cardinals' opponent, SMU's 12-game MIAC winner streak, or even the frigid 30-degree game-time temperatures.
What worried the SMU head coach was the day itself — Senior Day.
"Anytime you have a a day like this, where you want to honor your seniors on their last home games, you worry about how much the emotion of the day will affect your players," said Fennern. "You just never really know how they are going to react."
This group of seniors reacted just fine — much to the disappointment of the visiting Royals.
Regan Cahanes (Woodbury, Minn.) and Krista Conway (Mendota Heights, Minn.) accounted for five of SMU's nine hits — with Cahanes going 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and Conway adding a 2-for-3, 1-RBI effort — in leading SMU to a 6-0 victory in Game 1 of the teams' MIAC doubleheader at the SMU Field.
And in Game 2, fellow seniors Amy Edge (Montfort, Wis.), Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) and Amanda Daigle (Rice Lake, Wis.) did their parT — Edge delivering a two-run home run and scoring twice, Lang going 2-for-3 with an RBI double, and Daigle pitching a perfect fifth in which she struck out two of the three batters she faced — as SMU completed the sweep with a 10-0, five-inning victory.
"It was a great way to send the seniors off," said Fennern, whose team has now won 14 straight MIAC games and remains just one game back of league-leading St. Thomas in the quest for the regular-season conference title. "It was great to see all our seniors come through like they did."
SMU scored single runs in the first, second and fourth innings, before putting Game 1 out of reach with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Edge's RBI single in the first inning, however, was really all the offense the Cardinals would need, as SMU pitcher Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) was virtually untouchable, allowing just two hits — a single in the fifth and a single in the sixth — while striking out 12 and not walking anyone in posting her career-high 16th win of the season.
Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) did her best Schipp imitation in Game 2, as she tossed four innings of one-hit ball, allowing just a first-inning, two-out single. The freshman right-hander did not walk a batter and struck out three, before giving way to Daigle in the fifth.
"It was the same story — we got great pitching from Jenny and Wally, our offense did a nice job of getting big hits when we needed them, and we played well defensively," said Fennern, whose team left little doubt in Game 2, scoring five runs in the first, three in the second — two on Edge's team-leading fifth home run of the season — and two in the third. "The conditions were a bit tough out there, but we battled through it and got the job done."
