Game 1 Box Score /
Game 2 Box Score /
GameDay Online
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Batters go through hitting slumps all the time.
For the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, their “hitting slump” lasted 12 games. Through those first 12 games, the Cardinals were a dismal 1-for-11, managing just a 17-9 victory over Buena Vista.
Since then, however, the Cardinals are batting 1.000, going a perfect 4-for-4 through their first two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheaders.
SMU extended its “hitting streak” to four straight with a pair of impressive wins over Concorida Saturday, as the Cardinals got a complete-game, two-hit pitching effort from
Sarah Fitzgerald (Colo, Iowa) in the opener, then watched
Jenna Johnson (Menomonie, Wis.) take a no-hitter into the fifth, before combining with Fitzgerald on another two-hitter in a 4-1 Game 2 win.
“We put together a solid performance all the way around,” said SMU coach
Jen Miller, whose team moved to 4-0 in the MIAC and 5-11 overall with its second straight conference sweep. “It was nice to see us continue to swing the bats well, and we got great pitching.
“It was a good day all the way around for us.”
The Cardinals broke up a pitcher's duel with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth and three more in the sixth in the opener.
Cassie Otte (Randolph, Minn.) drove in one run in the fifth and scored on an error to account for the other, while
Amy Zimniewicz (River Falls, Wis.) delivered an RBI single and
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) followed with a two-run shot to account for the Cardinals' three sixth-inning tallies.
While the Cardinal bats battered Concordia pitcher Erin Johnson for eight hits, Fitzgerald was untouchable, allowing just second- and sixth-inning singles, while striking out six and walking two..
In the nightcap, the Cobbers got on the board first, scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the first, but SMU responded with an unearned run of their own in a two-run third, then added singles runs in the fifth and seventh innings to ice the win.
Danielle Geske (Rosemoutn, Minn.) and
Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) each had two hits to power the Cardinals' nine-hit, Game 2 attack.
“Nobody was happy with where we were at when we came back from California,” said Miller, whose Cardinals will look for their third straight MIAC sweep when they return to action Wednesday, playing host to Bethel at 4 p.m. “But we seem to have turned things around a bit — hopefully we can just keep it going.”
