Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn. — During their eight-game appearance at the Sun West Tournament in Orange, Calif., the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team showed flashes of brilliance — especially on the pitcher's mound.
During their four games at the Coe Tournament last weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it was the Cardinals' offense that flexed its muscles a bit.
Yet, through the first 12 games of the season, the Cardinals only had four wins to show for their efforts — and coach Nikki Fennern was still waiting for her team to put all the pieces together.
Wednesday afternoon, the Cardinals unveiled the complete package, as SMU pitchers held Hamline to just one run on 10 hits in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, while the Cardinal offense belted out 21 hits — including four doubles and three home runs — and their defense was flawless in 13 innings.
The end result — a much-needed, conference-opening sweep of the Pipers at the SMU Field.
"To pick up two conference wins — and to play the way we did in doing it — is huge," said Fennern, whose team clubbed the Pipers 8-0 in six innings in the opener, before closing out the sweep with an 8-1 win in Game 2. "No one knows how the conference is going to play itself out — (the playoff spots) are pretty much up for grabs, so every conference win is a big one.
"I was very pleased with the way we played — in every facet," added Fennern, whose team has now won three straight. "We've played well in spurts up to this point, so it was nice to see us finally put it all together."
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead in both games — scoring three runs in their first at-bat in Game 1, while plating single runs in the second and third innings of Game 2. And playing catch-up, against SMU hurlers Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.) and Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) proved to be no easy task for the Pipers.
Schipp allowed just three hits in five innings of work in the opener, while Wallisch was untouchable in the nightcap, striking out the first five batters she faced, and nine of the first 11, en route to the complete-game five-hitter.
"Hamline is a very good hitting team, they have the ability to bust out for a three- or four-run inning at any time," said Fennern. "Jenny and Megan both did a great job of keeping (the Pipers) off-balance. They got ahead of the hitters and then made them chase bad pitches."
Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) and Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) led the Cardinals' offensive charge, each collecting four hits in six at-bats. Geske also belted her first collegiate home run and drove in three runs, while Giannini collected a pair of doubles among her four hits and scored four runs. Schipp went 3-for-5 — including 3-for-3 in Game 2, while Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) and Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) each homered.
"It's good to get those first two (MIAC) wins under our belt," said Fennern. "I like what I saw today, now we've got to make sure to put that same type of performance on the field every day."
