NORTHFIELD, Minn. — After back-to-back home conference doubleheaders, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team hits the road Tuesday, traveling to St. Olaf for a 4 p.m. MIAC twinbill against the Oles.



The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (1-3 MIAC | 8-6 Overall) vs.
St. Olaf Oles (0-0 MIAC | 3-11 Overall)

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Last Action:
The Cardinals picked up their first conference win of the season with a 3-2 victory over Saint Benedict in Game 1 of the teams' MIAC doubleheader at the SMU Field Saturday. The Blazers turned the tables in the second game, however, beating SMU 3-2 to salvage a split. … St. Olaf, meanwhile, is coming off a pair of nonconference losses at Cornell Saturday in Mount Vernon, Iowa. The Rams beat the Oles 7-1 in the opener, then completed the sweep with a 4-2 victory.

Last Meeting — April 8, 2010:
The Cardinals rallied from a 2-0 deficit to lead 4-2 through five innings in the opening game of their MIAC doubleheader against St. Olaf at the SMU Field. But the Oles singed SMU for seven runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh en route to a 10-4 victory. And SMU almost let Game 2 slip through their grasp as well, giving up a 2-0 lead when St. Olaf's Maggie Scholer belted a two-run home run — the Oles' third of the day — in the top of the sixth inning. This time around, however, the Cardinals answered back, getting a run-scoring single from Hanna Schmitt in the bottom of the sixth to preserve the split with a 3-2 victory.

Up Next:
The Cardinals return home on Thursday, as SMU hosts Macalester in a 4 p.m. conference doubleheader at the SMU Field. … St. Olaf, meanwhile, travels to Mankato, Minn., on Thursday, as the Oles square off against Bethany Lutheran in a 3 pm. Nonconference twinbill.

Saint Mary's Cardinals Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
Officially, Tuesday's doubleheader at St. Olaf is the Cardinals' first “road” game. SMU is 7-3 in neutral-site games and 1-3 on their home field. … With their split against Saint Benedict Saturday, the Cardinals and Blazers have now played six straight one-run games in the last three seasons — including five being decided by the same 3-2 score. … Three of the Cardinals last four games this season have also been decided by 3-2 outcomes. … Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) accounted for two of SMU's six hits in Game 1 vs. Saint Benedict on Saturday, including a two-run, first-inning home run. … Betzold's HR was her first of the season and second of her four-year collegiate career. … Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) and Joanna Mangan (Chicago, Ill.) paced SMU's 10-hit Game 2 attack vs. CSB Saturday, as Gannon went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and Mangan was 2-for-3, while driving in both Cardinal runs. … Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) enters Tuesday's DH at St. Olaf hitting a team-best .452. She also leads the team in hits (19), while Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) is the team-leader in runs (14), and Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) boasts team-highs in doubles (5), home runs (3), RBIs (18), total bases (29) and slugging percentage (.644). … Two of Carter's three home runs have been grand slams. … Stenseth's first HR was the Cardinals' first hit of the 2011 season — a lead-off home run against Haverford on March 6. … Carter (3) and Stenseth (2) have accounted for five of the Cardinals' seven home runs. Betzold and Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.) have hit the other two. … SMU, which is hitting .296 as a team, has seven regulars who are hitting .300 or better — Ohl (.452), Michelle Carne (Escanaba, Mich. / .385), Betzold (.359), Carter (.333), Gannon (.333), Mangan (.323) and Stenseth (.304). … Half of Stenseth's 14 hits have been for extra bases — four doubles, one triple and two home runs. … Ohl, who has hit safely in 12 of SMU's 14 games, has had two or more hits six times this season. … 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 Tuesday's DH at St. Olaf with a team-best 6-4 record and a 2.24 ERA. She has tossed 56.1 innings and struck out a team-leading 28 batters. … 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. … The Cardinals boast seven players who have started all 14 games this season. … Two of SMU's seven wins have been against nationally ranked teams — No. 22 Coe (4-2) and No. 7 Central-Iowa (5-1). … Four of the Cardinals' six losses this season have been by one run — 6-5 vs. Wheaton (Ill.), 5-4 vs. Southwestern (Texas) and 3-2 vs. St. Thomas and Saint Benedict. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 17-4 in the first inning — including all three of their runs in Saturday's 3-2 Game 1 win vs. Saint Benedict. … SMU has scored first in six of its eight wins. … The Cardinals are 5-1 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.

St. Olaf Oles Around The Horn:
2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
Saturday's doubleheader against Cornell was St. Olaf's first action since returning from Tucson, Ariz., on March 24. The Oles had three straight doubleheaders postponed due to weather and poor field conditions. … St. Olaf's 10-7 win over Calvin on March 23 snapped the Oles' season-opening eight-game losing streak. … St. Olaf has scored a combined 29 runs in its three wins. … Julie Fergus comes into Tuesday's DH vs. Saint Mary's as the team leader in virtually every offensive category, including batting average (.444), runs (8), hits (16), doubles (2), triples (1), total bases (20) and on-base percentage (.592). … Katie Truax has accounted for two of the team's three home runs and leads the Oles with 19 RBIs and a .655 slugging percentage. … St. Olaf boasts seven players with 10 or more hits through 14 games. … Natalee McNeff and Truax have been the workhorses of the Ole pitching staff, as McNeff has compiled a 2-4 record and a 6.92 ERA in 30.1 innings, while Truax is 1-6 with an 8.23 ERA in a team-high 32.1 innings.