Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball pitching staff has adopted a rather miserly attitude of late.
And coach Nikki Fennern couldn't be happier.
Just four days after throwing a pair of back-to-back shutouts against Concordia — allowing just a combined five hits, while striking out 29 — SMU's hurlers were at it again Wednesday, as the Cardinals posted their third and fourth straight shutouts, blanking Macalester 4-0 and 5-0 in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play at the SMU Field.
"Our pitchers have been carrying the load of late," said Fennern, whose team has not allowed a run since the fourth inning of Game 2 vs. Gustavus on April 20 — a span of 31 scoreless innings. "Offensively, I was a little disappointed with our performance today, but our pitchers were in control from the beginning, so we didn't need much offense."
Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.) tossed her second-straight three-hit shutout in the opener, striking out 11 and not walking a batter. Erin Leone (Farmington, Minn.) — who was named MIAC Pitcher of the Week for her 12.1 innings of scoreless ball last week, including a two-hit, 14-strikeout effort against Concordia — and Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) combined one a four-hitter in Game 2 as SMU pushed its winning streak to five straight.
More important than the five consecutive wins, however, was the fact that SMU's Game 1 win earned the Cardinals a spot in next weekend's MIAC tournament for the second straight year.
"We talked before the game about the importance of Game 1, about how we could wrap up a (MIAC) tournament berth with a win," said Fennern, whose team joins St. Thomas and Gustavus as invitees to the four-team, double-elimination tournament. "What's important now, though, is that we don't become complacent now that we have that (playoff) spot locked up. We can't take our final games for granted — we have to go out there and play to the best of our ability every day."
The Cardinals' offense wasn't quite up to par against the Scots, but they did enough to get the wins, as SMU scored once in the third inning, then plated three more in the fourth — two on Schipp's second home run of the season — inning winning Game 1.
It was more of the same in the second game, as the Cardinals scored single runs in the first and third, then added two more in the fourth on a two-run single by Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) and closed out the scoring with one run in the fifth.
"Mentally, these were tough games for us," said Fennern. "These were games we knew coming that we should win, and when that's the case, sometimes it's hard to stay focused on the task at hand.
"Fortunately, we were able to generate enough offense, and our pitchers did the rest — (the pitching staff) carried us again today."
