Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team came within a whisker of dropping their third straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game.
But once the Cardinals decided to get down to the business at hand, they were unstoppable.
Down to their final out, the Cardinals took advantage of one Augsburg error to score the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning, then — thanks in part to another Auggie error — got the game-winner on a Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) single in the bottom of the eighth en route to a 2-1 Game 1 victory.
The Cardinals picked up right where they left off in the nightcap, scoring three times in each of the first two innings to complete the sweep with a business-like 7-1 victory.
"We got lucky, no doubt about that," admitted SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team rebounded from last Saturday's two losses to defending national champion St. Thomas with two key wins over the Auggies — wins that kept SMU within striking distance of the league-leading Tommies. "We weren't able to string any hits together, but when we got that break (in the seventh inning) we took advantage of it.
"You don't like to have to rely on it, but it never hurts to have a little luck on your side."
Four of SMU's seven Game 1 hits were doubles — but the Cardinals came away empty handed on the first three, failing to move the runner past second base in the second, third and fourth innings, and trailed 1-0 heading into otheir final at-bat.
But in the seventh, the Cardinals didn't let that fourth and final double go to waste. Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) delivered a one-out double, and after Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) flied out to right for the second out, scored the tying run when Augsburg pitcher Shelley Harris threw wild to first on a grounder by Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.).
Given new life, SMU made the most of it, as Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) led off with a bunt single, moved to third on an error by Tiffany Magnuson and scored on Jung's single.
"We made things hard on ourselves by not making better use of those extra-base hits, but I was happy to see us get the job down in crunch time," said Fennern. "The second game was much more like the way we are capable of playing."
The Cardinals erupted for three runs on four hits in each of the first two innings of Game 2, then rode the pitching of Wallisch and Erin Leone (Farmington, Minn.) to the lopsided win. Wallisch tossed four innings of no-hit ball, then gave way to Leone, whose bid to complete the combined no-hitter was broken up on an infield single in the top of the seventh inning.
"This was a good sweep for us — we needed this after (the St. Thomas games)," said Fennern, whose team improved to 8-2 in the MIAC heading into Thursday's doubleheader at Saint Benedict. "Softball is all about rhythm, and this two wins put us in a positive rhythm heading into (Thursday's games)."
