ORANGE, Calif. — It wasn't the start to the day that Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach
Jen Miller was hoping for.
Tufts erupted for eight runs on nine hits in the bottom of the fourth inning in cruising to a 10-0, five-inning victory over the Cardinals Monday morning.
And things had the potential to go from bad to worse. After all, while Tufts may have been an NCAA Division III national tournament participant a year ago, Linfield entered Monday's game vs. SMU ranked No. 11 in the latest NFCA Top 25 poll.
For the first three innings, the Cardinals and Wildcats traded zeros.
Then came the fourth.
And for the second time in less than three hours, SMU's opponent batted around in their half of the fourth, as the Wildcats banged out six of their nine hits and scored five runs in handing the Cardinals then second straight shutout loss, a 6-0 decision in Saint Mary's final game of the Sun West Tournament.
“It wasn't quite what we were hoping for in a last day,” said Miller, whose team finished 3-5 during their four-day stay. “We played some pretty good ball this week, but the last couple of days, our offense kind of went into hiding.”
SMU was held to just nine hits in the two games Monday — five against Tufts and four against Linfield.
“We're not swinging the bats as well as we need to,” Miller said.
Julianne Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.) and
Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.) accounted for six of those nine hits. Bartosz went 2-for-2 with a double against Tufts, then added a 1-for-3 effort against Linfield, while Simons was 1-for-1 with a double vs. Tufts and 2-for-3 against the Wildcats.
Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) and
Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) each had singles vs. the Tufts, with
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) collecting SMU's other hit vs. Linfield.
The Cardinals (3-5 ovearll) are back in action on Thursday, traveling across town for a 3 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at Winona State.
