ORANGE, Calif. — For the second day in a row, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team hopped on the early-season offensive rollercoaster Friday afternoon.
Just a day after managing four hits in losing 5-0 to Kenyon, only to rebound by banging out 12 hits — including a pair of home runs — en route to a 9-1, six-inning victory over Hastings (Neb.), the Cardinals bought their tickets and were ready for another ride.
This time around, however, the ups and downs were a lot more enjoyable.
Two wins has a way of doing that.
The Cardinals hammered out 19 hits and scored 15 runs — including a seven-run fourth inning and a six-run seventh — in clubbing the University of Puget Sound 15-8, then followed that up by making the most of their opportunities, scoring four runs on just five hits in beating Kenyon 4-3.
“It was a wild day of ball,” said SMU coach
Jen Miller, whose team moved to 3-1 overall with the back-to-back victories. “Offensively we swung the bats very well today. That first game was a marathon, and it was good to see us hang tough.
“Then to bounce back and put together a solid performance (against Kenyon), it was a good day all the way around.”
The Cardinals made it look easy early on in their opener against Puget Sound, scoring once in the top of the third, then sending 13 batters to the plate in the fourth, scoring seven runs on nine hits to grab what appeared to be a commanding 8-0 advantage.
Unfortunately, appearances can be a bit deceiving.
The Loggers began whittling away at the SMU lead, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth, then, after the Cardinals plated a single run in the top of the fifth to take a 9-3 advantage, scored four times in the bottom of the fifth to make it a two-run game, 9-7.
The Cardinals gave themselves some breathing room in their final at-bat, once again batter around the order to score six times, and seal the victory.
Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.),
Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.) and
Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) all had four hits to pace SMU's 19-hit attack vs. the Loggers, while Carter also drove in three runs and scored three times — not to mention the fact that the freshman earned her first collegiate save, throwing 1 1/3 innings of one-hit relief.
The bats went back into hibernation in SMU's rematch against Kenyon, as the Cardinals managed just five hits — by five different players.
The Ladies jumped out to a 2-1 lead, sandwiching single runs in the bottom of the first and fourth around a third-inning SMU run, but the Cardinals — fueled by a pair of Kenyon errors — scored twice in the fifth to grab a 3-2 advantage.
Kenyon knotted the game at 3-3 on an Erin Samuel single in the bottom of the sixth, but SMU answered in the seventh.
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) led off the a walk, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a Kenyon throwing error, and scored on a
Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) ground ball.
Betzold, who earned the pitching win, allowing one earned run in three innings of relief, drove in a pair of runs vs. the Ladies, while
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.),
Hanna Schmitt (Rosemount, Minn.),
Jessica Sharpe (Ottawa, Ill.) and Carter all had one hit.
“We're off to a good start, but we've still got four tough games ahead,” said Miller, whose team squares off against Cal State-San Marcos (6 p.m. CST) and Chapman (10 p.m. CST) on Saturday, before closing out their spring trip with games against nationally ranked Tufts and Linfield on Monday. “Hopefully we can keep swinging the bats well.”
