Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore

WINONA, Minn. — It wasn't quite the ending to the regular season that the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team was hoping for, but with the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament looming on the horizon, it will have to do.

The Cardinals failed to win at least one game of a doubleheader for the first time since getting swept by the nation's top-ranked team, St. Thomas, on April 8, as UW-River Falls escaped with a 3-1 Game 1 victory, and a 2-2 tie in Game 2, a game that was halted after five innings due to darkness.

SMU pitcher Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.) held the Falcons off the scoreboard for the first five innings of the opener, extending her consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 35, before UW-River Falls tagged her for three runs — two earned — in the top of the third.

The Cardinals got one run back in the bottom of the sixth, as Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) grounded into a fielder's choice that allowed pinch-runner Megan McGraw (Woodbury, Minn.) to score from third.

That, however, was as close as the Cardinals would get, in losing for just the second time in their last 10 games.

UW-River Falls jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second game, scoring single runs in the top of the first and second, before SMU knotted things up with a pair of runs in the third, the first coming on an RBI double from Cassie Otte (Randolph, Minn.) and the second on an RBI double by Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.). Gutterman's double — coupled with her third-inning single in Game 1 — extended her hitting streak to a season-high 18 straight. The SMU senior has now hit safely in 34 of the Cardinals' 38 games.

The Cardinals, who drop to 24-13-1 overall, return to action Friday, taking on Gustavus in the opening round of the four-team MIAC Tournament. The Cardinals and Gusties square off at 3 p.m. at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.