WINONA, Minn. — Runs came in bunches for the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, as the Cardinals scored 18 runs against Augsburg — 14 of which came in three innings.
And it was those three innings — an eight-run first in the opener and a pair of three-run innings in the nightcap — that lifted SMU to an 11-6, 7-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of the Auggies Saturday at the SMU Field.
“We needed a bounce-back performance like this,” said SMU coach
Jen Miller, whose team dropped a pair of games to Bethel on Wednesday, and needed a sweep of the Auggies to stay in the MIAC playoff chase. “We didn't swing the bats very well (against Bethel) and I thought we did a much better job today.
“It was disappointing to lose those two against Bethel, but it was encouraging to see us come back and get two against a very good Augsburg team.”
The Cardinals spotted Augsburg a 2-0 lead after the Auggies' half of the first inning, but SMU got those runs — and plenty more — back in bottom of the first, scoring eight runs on four hits.
Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) had the biggest hit of the inning, lacing a bases-clearing three-run double.
SMU would tack on solo runs in the second and fourth to make it a 10-2 game, before the Auggies decided to make things interesting, scoring four times with two outs in the top of the fifth to cut the Cardinal lead to 10-6. Julie Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.) delivered an RBI single in the home half of the sixth to seal the win.
Carter and
Hanna Schmitt (Rosemount, Minn.) each had three hits, while Bartosz when 2-for-4 with four RBIs and
Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) added a pair of hits in four at-bats.
SMU picked up right where it left off in Game 2, scoring three times in the second inning — all coming on
Erin Stenseth's (Eau Claire, Wis.) first collegiate home run — and once in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.
That lead didn't last long, however, as Augsburg plated all for of its second-game runs in the fifth inning to tie the game at 4-4, before SMU put together its second three-run inning of the game in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good.
Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) who picked up the pitching wins in both games — allowing two earned runs in 7 2/3 innings — was the only Cardinal with more than one hit in Game 2, going 2-for-3.
The Cardinals, who move to 6-4 in the MIAC and 9-15 overall, are back in action on Sunday, when they play host to nationally ranked Luther in a 1 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at the SMU Field.
