WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team is back in conference play Saturday, as the Cardinals host Saint Benedict in a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader at the SMU Field



The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (0-2 MIAC | 7-5 Overall) vs.
Saint Benedict Blazers (0-0 MIAC | 4-8 Overall)

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Last Action:
The Cardinals dropped a pair of games to St. Thomas in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener Wednesday at the SMU Field. UST used three solo home runs to beat SMU 3-2 in Game 1, then added two more HRs in a 9-3 Game 2 win. … Saint Benedict, meanwhile, has not played since March 25, when the Blazers dropped both ends of a nonconference doubleheader against St. Cloud State, falling 6-2 and 8-7 in St. Cloud, Minn.

Last Meeting — April 25, 2010:
The Cardinals — who, a day earlier, scored six fifth-inning runs in beating Concordia 10-3 in Game 1, then sent 16 batters to the plate in scoring 11 sixth-inning runs in a 12-4 Game 2 win — could have used one or two of those runs against the Blazers. Saint Benedict scored in the bottom of the eighth inning — in both games — in handing SMU 3-2 and 7-6 conference losses in St. Joseph, Minn.

Up Next:
The Cardinals hit the road on Tuesday, traveling to Northfield, Minn., for a 4 p.m. conference doubleheader against St. Olaf. … Saint Benedict, meanwhile, has its home opener on Tuesday, as the Blazers entertain Concordia in a 4 p.m. MIAC doubleheader in St. Joseph, Minn.

Saint Mary's Cardinals Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
Wednesday's Game 1 loss to St. Thomas snapped the Cardinals' two-game losing streak. … Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) accounted for four of SMU's 10 hits against the Tommies Wednesday, as the sophomore went 4-for-7 with a run scored. … Ohl, who has hit safely in 10 of SMU's 12 games, has now had two or more hits in six of the team's 12 games. … Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) chipped in a pair of hits in seven at-bats vs. the Tommies. … Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) managed just one hit vs. UST Wednesday, but it was a big one — a two-run fifth-inning home run to drive in both of SMU's Game 1 runs. … Stenseth's HR was the second of the season and fourth of her collegiate career. … With her four hits Wednesday, Ohl pushed her team-leading batting average to .486 (17-for-35). … Ohl is one of five SMU regulars hitting .300 or better — Michelle Carne (Escanaba, Mich. / .364), Carter (.359), Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn. / .324) and Stenseth (.308) are the other four. … Carter (3) and Stenseth (2) have accounted for five of the team's six home runs. Two of Carter's three round-trippers have been grand slams, while the first of Stenseth's two HRs was the Cardinals' first hit of the season — a lead-off home run against Haverford on March 6. … Carter boasts a team-best 18 RBIs and owns a .692 slugging percentage. … Seven of Carter's 14 hits this season have been for extra bases. … Carter owns a team-best four multiple-RBI games — including a three-hit, five-RBI effort against the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford on March 10. … Betzold enters Saturday's DH vs. Saint Benedict with a team-best 2.62 ERA and has accounted for five of the team's seven pitching wins. She has tossed a team-leading 42.2 innings, striking out 18 and walking just three. … Angie Bates (Roselle, Ill.) and Kayla Peterson (Lewistion, Minn.) each earned their first collegiate pitching wins during SMU's spring trip 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. … Two of SMU's seven wins have been against nationally ranked teams — No. 22 Coe (4-2) and No. 7 Central-Iowa (5-1). … Three of the Cardinals' five losses this season have been by one run — 6-5 vs. Wheaton (Ill.), 5-4 vs. Southwestern (Texas) and 3-2 vs. St. Thomas. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 14-4 in the first inning. … SMU has scored first in five of its seven wins. … The Cardinals are 4-0 when leading after the sixth inning, but 0-4 when trailing heading into the seventh. … SMU banged out a season-high 19 hits and 12 runs vs. UP-Bradford.

Saint Benedict Blazers Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
The Blazers have not played since dropping both games to St. Cloud State on March 25. Those two losses pushed CSB's losing streak to a season-high seven straight. … Seven of Saint Benedict's 10 losses have been by two runs or less — including one-run losses to McDaniel (3-2), Montclair State (1-0), Anderson (1-0) and St. Cloud State (8-7). … Saint Benedict has been held to two runs or less in 11 of their 14 games — including wins of 2-0 vs. Nazareth and 2-1 vs. Centenary. … Lis Wieneke enters Saturday's DH at Saint Mary's with a team-leading .306 batting average, while Devin Bowlin leads the team in at-bats (47), hits (12), doubles (2) and total bases (14). … Alyssa Kubesh boasts a team-best five RBIs, while Sierra Dooley has accounted for the team's only home run — a fifth-inning solo shot against UW-River Falls on March 14. … Coach Denny Johnson has used four pitchers in the Blazers' first 14 games, with Emma Alwin and Rachel Nelson seeing the brunt of the work. Alwin has thrown a team-leading 35.2 inings, while Nelson is close behind at 31.2. … Alwin has compiled a 1-5 record and a 1.57 ERA in eight appearances, while Nelson has a 2.43 ERA and a 2-4 mark in her eight appearances. … Trisha Johnson (1-0, 3.50 ERA, 18.0 IP) and Amanda Eaton (0-1, 4.90 ERA, 10.0 IP) share the team lead in strikeouts with 13 each, while Nelson has fanned 12 and Alvin 11. …