WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University — thanks to Tuesday's Game 2 win over league-leading St. Thomas — entered Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader floating on Cloud Nine.
Bethel, however, quickly sent the Cardinals crashing back to earth, as the Royals banged out 20 hits and scored 15 runs in sweeping SMU 6-3 and 9-2 at the SMU Field.
“That wasn't the way we wanted to follow up (Tuesday's win),” said SMU coach
Jen Miller, whose team snapped a 20-game losing streak against St. Thomas with their 3-0 Game 2 victory. “We come up with a big win like that, and turn around and lose back-to-back games like we did today, that hurts.”
The Cardinals spotted the Royals a 1-0 first-inning lead, but got that back — and more — when they scored three times in the bottom of the second to take a 3-1 advantage.
Angie Diercks (Red Wing, Minn.),
Julianne Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.) and
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) all drove in second-inning runs, as SMU collected four of its nine hits in taking the 3-1 advantage.
Bethel whittled away at the SMU lead, scoring a single run in the fourth, then tying the game 3-3 on Rebecca Akerson's RBI double in the top of the sixth. The Royals then took the lead for good in the seventh, scoring three times on three hits — while also taking advantage of two SMU errors.
Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.) and
Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) led the way for SMU offensively in the opener, each going 3-for-4, while Gannon added two hits and Bartosz accounted for the other one.
The Royals picked up right where they left off in the nightcap, scoring once in the first and four times in the second to grab a 5-0 advantage. Bethel would push that advantage to 7-0 with a two-run fifth, before SMU finally got on the board with two runs in the sixth — one coming on an RBI fielder's choice by Carter and the other on an RBI double by
Joanna Mangan (Chicago, Ill.).
Gannon went 3-for-4, while
Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) had two hits in three at-bats to fuel SMU's nine-hit Game 2 attack.
The Cardinals, who fall to 4-4 in the MIAC and 7-15 overall, are back in action on Saturday, when they play host to Augsburg in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader at the SMU Field.
