Game 1 Boxscore / Game 2 Boxscore
WINONA, Minn. — Their bats were nearly as cool as the game time temperatures.
Their fielding was average at best.
Their pitching was outstanding.
And for the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, 1-for-3 equalled two Monday afternoon — two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victories.
With runs coming few and far between, the Cardinals hopped on the arm of pitcher Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) and rode the senior right-hander to a pair of one-run victories over Saint Benedict. Wallisch tossed a pair of complete games, a four-hit gem in the opener and a six-hitter in the nightcap, as SMU swept the Blazers 2-1 and 4-3 at the SMU Field.
"It wasn't easy, but it was two important wins against a very good team," said SMU coach Jen Miller, whose team pushed its winning streak to four straight and has now won eight of its last 10 games. "Offensively, we didn't perform as well as I would like, but Megan really picked us up.
"She pitched as well as she's pitched all year, and to go 14 innings at a high level like she did, that was a big boost for us — at a time when we really needed it."
Wallisch was virtually untouchable in the opener, allowing just four hits — all singles, and two in the seventh inning when CSB got back-to-back, two-out singles — while striking out a season-high nine batters and not allowing an earned run.
And it was more of the same in the nightcap, as Wallisch fanned six, scattered six hits and allowed just a pair of earned runs.
After spotting CSB a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning of Game 1, the Cardinals got an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, before taking the lead for good on a Jenna Johnson (Menomonie, Wis.) RBI double in the bottom of the fifth.
SMU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second game — the first run coming on a Jenny Giannini (Riverside, Ill.) sacrifice fly in the second and the other two on a two-run single by Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) — but the Blazers battled back, scoring twice in the top of the fourth to cut the gap to 3-2.
Saint Benedict tied the game at 3-3 when Shannon Eveland scored on a passed ball in the top of the sixth, only to have SMU regain the lead in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single up the middle by Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.).
"Our pitching was definitely the bright spot today," said Miller. "We struggled a bit at the plate and we were a little shaky in the field (committing three errors in the two games). But the bottom line is, we got the two wins."
