Boxscore
ORANGE, Calif. — Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Nikki Fennern had a strange sense of deja vu during her Cardinals' final day at the Sun West Tournament Sunday afternoon.
After Chapman handed the Cardinals a 1-0 setback — scoring its lone run in the top of the first inning — Fennern had a feeling she and her team had been in that situation before.
Maybe because, less than two hours earlier, they had.
Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) belted SMU's first home run of the season — in the top of the first inning — as the Cardinals opened the day with a 1-0 victory over Amherst.
"If we learned anything this week, it's that we aren't going to fold under the pressure of playing in close ball games," said Fennern, whose team went 3-5 during its eight games in the Sun West Tournament — including six games that were decided by one run. "Obviously, we've still got a lot of work to do, but overall I was pretty pleased with what I saw."
Fennern did admit, however, that while the Cardinal pitching staff appears to be near mid-season form, SMU's offense and defense are still a bit rusty.
Take Sunday's opener against Amherst.
The Cardinals managed just two hits — Jung's first-inning home run and a single by Megan Pulvermacher (Richland Center, Wis.) — against the Jeffs, but that proved to be more than enough for pitcher Erin Leone (Farmington, Minn.), who scattered three hits and struck out nine in picking up the complete-game pitching win.
SMU's offense continued to struggle against Chapman, as the Cardinals mustered just four singles — by four different players — in falling to the third-ranked Panthers. Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) went the distance on the mound for SMU, scattering five hits — and the lone first-inning run — while striking out five.
"We were a bit shorthanded today, and it showed," said Fennern, noting that three of the Cardinals' starters, including pitching ace Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.) were out of the lineup due to the flu, while two others played despite being under the weather. "Against teams like (Chapman) you'd like to be able to put your best lineup together and we weren't able to do that. But I thought we hung in there pretty well.
"This was a very good tournament for us — a great way to start the season," said Fennern, adding that three of SMU's three losses — 5-4 in eight innings to No. 9 Rutgers Camden, 1-0 to No. 3 Chapman and 7-2 to No. 2 (in NAIA) Simon Fraser — were against nationally ranked teams. "We knew the competition was going to be tough, and we put ourselves in position to win every game — we just weren't able to get the timely hits when we needed them."
