WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team kicks off its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season on Wednesday, as the Cardinals host St. Thomas in a 4 p.m. doubleheader at SMU Field.



The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (7-3 overall) vs.
St. Thomas Tommies (13-4 overall)

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Last Action:
The Cardinals have been off since early March, when they went 7-3 in the 10-game appearance at the Tucson (Ariz.) Invitational. SMU's last game of the trip was a convincing 7-1 win over SUNY-Oneonta on March 13. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, closed out a 9-2 spring trip showing in Florida with a 10-1 victory over Colby on Friday.

Last Meeting — April 13, 2010:
After suffering a heartbreaking, 5-3 loss in their opening game of their MIAC doubleheader against league-leading St. Thomas — letting a 2-1, fifth-inning lead slip through their fingers — the Cardinals proved they could learn from their mistakes in the nightcap, getting the early lead and never looking back en route to a 3-0 victory in St. Paul, Minn.

Up Next:
The Cardinals remain at home on Saturday, hosting Saint Benedict in a 1 p.m. conference contest at SMU Field. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, opens its home schedule on Saturday, hosting Carleton in a 1 p.m. MIAC twinbill.

Saint Mary's Cardinals Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
The Cardinals enter today's DH vs. St. Thomas riding a two-game winning streak — closing out their spring trip in Tucson, Ariz., with back-to-back wins over seventh-ranked Central (5-1) and SUNY-Oneonta (7-1). … SMU's 3-0 win over St. Thomas in Game 2 last year snapped a 20-game winless streak against the Tommies, dating back to a 1-0 SMU victory during the 2001 season — when current head coach Jen Miller was the team's starting catcher. … SMU also had the honor of snapping a pair of lengthy UST streaks — 71 games without shutout loss dating back to a 2008 loss to UW-Oshkosh in the NCAA national tournament and 165 without a shutout loss to an MIAC school, dating back to a 1-0 loss to Gustavus in 2003. … Two of SMU's seven wins during their spring trip were against nationally ranked teams — No. 22 Coe (4-2) and No. 7 Central-Iowa (5-1). … Two of the Cardinals' three losses this season have been by one run — 6-5 vs. Wheaton (Ill.) and 5-4 vs. Southwestern (Texas). … Haley Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) hit a team-leading .464 during the Cardinals' spring trip, collecting 13 hits in 28 at-bats. Ohl also led the team with four multiple-hit games. … Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) feasted on spring-break pitching, as the SMU sophomore hit .375 (12-for-32), with team-highs in doubles (4), home runs (7), RBIs (17), total bases (25) and slugging percentage (.781). … Two of Carter's three home runs were grand slams. … Carter, who hit two home runs in 2010, has now belted five round-trippers in her 50 collegiate games. … Carter also put together four multiple-RBI games. … Carter's three hits, five RBIs and seven total bases vs. University of Pittsburgh at Bradford on March 10 were all single-game career highs. … As a team, the Cardinals hit .310 and boasted six players — Ohl, Michelle Carne (Esconaba, Mich. / .389), Carter (.375), Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn. / .370), Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis. / .333) and Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill. / .310) — who hit over .300 in Tucson, Ariz. … Stenseth collected SMU's first hit of 2011, belting a lead-off home run in SMU's 12-3 win over Haverford on March 6. … Betzold hurled a team-high 35.2 innings on the mound during SMU's spring trip, compiling a 5-1 record and a 2.55 ERA, while striking out 13 and walking just three. … Angie Bates (Roselle, Ill.) and Kayla Peterson (Lewistion, Minn.) each earned her first collegiate wins during SMU's stay in Tucson — Bates limited seventh-ranked Central-Iowa to one run in tossing a complete game in SMU's March 11 win over the Dutch, while Peterson went three innings to earn the win in the Cardinals' 12-4 victory vs. UP-Bradford on March 10. … SMU banged out a season-high 19 hits and 12 runs vs. UP-Bradford. … SMU has outscored its opponents 12-4 in the first inning and 10-2 in the sixth. … The Cardinals are 4-1 when scoring in the first inning and 5-1 when scoring the game's first run.

St. Thomas Tommies Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
The Tommies come into 2011 boasting seven consecutive 40-win seasons. … The Tommies were picked as the preseason favorite to win the MIAC by the conference coaches. … The Tommies are 14-4 thus far in 2011, including a 10-2 record last week in Clermont, Fla., on spring break. In the last 12 seasons, the Tommies' combined spring-break record is 111-26. … UST batted .362 last week in 12 games, led by Becky Eischens (15-of-29, .520), Emily Wilson (15-of-32, .470). All-American Sydney Marquardt (18-of-39, .460), freshman Emily Gregory (9-of-30, 300), freshman Jen Hoffman (9-of-30, .300). … Biz Sitzman was 4-1 with an 0.80 ERA in six appearances in Florida. Christy Gries was 3-0 with a 2.60 ERA. … In all 18 games, UST has 174 hits and is batting .354, and has outscored opponents 142-68. … UST's four losses include doubleheader splits with UW-Eau Claire and UW-LaCrosse; an 8-1 loss to UW-Whitewater; and a 6-4 loss to No. 3-ranked Eastern Connecticut State. Those four teams have a combined 41-14 record. … The Tommies come into 2011 with a 17-game MIAC win streak (and a 34-1 mark in their last 35 conference games). Their lone blemish in 2010 to an MIAC opponent came in Game 2 of a home doubleheader to Saint Mary's, 3-0. … UST is 232-10 against MIAC opponents in John Tschida's 10-year era as a head coach, including a 21-0 record in the postseason playoffs. … In UST's season-opening sweep of Buena Vista, four freshmen homered in the same inning of a 16-0 win in the Rosemount Dome (two did in their first college at bats). … The Tommies' 13-2, six-inning loss to UW-La Crosse in early March is the Tommies' only double-digit defeat in Tschida's 11-year tenure as head coach, covering 485 games to date.