ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team makes its first MIAC post-season appearance since 2007 Friday, as the Cardinals square off against Gustavus in a 2:30 p.m. contest at Bethel's Ona Orth Field.

The MIAC Tournament Field:
St. Thomas Tommies (22-0 MIAC | 36-4 Overall)
Gustavus Gusties (25-12-1 MIAC | 18-3-1 Overall)
Saint Mary's Cardinals (15-7 MIAC | 22-14 Overall)
Hamline Pipers (14-8 MIAC | 21-17 Overall)

GameDay Live On The Web:
MIAC Tournament Homepage | Tournament Program
Live Stats (at Bethel's Ona Orth Field)
Live Video (at St. Thomas – click link and scroll down to find MIAC Playoffs)

MIAC Tournament Schedule:
Friday, May 6, 2011
Game 1: No. 1 St. Thomas vs. No. 4 Hamline, 2:30 p.m., at St. Thomas
Game 2: No. 2 Gustavus vs. No. 3 Saint Mary's, 2:30 p.m., at Bethel
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 5 p.m., at St. Thomas
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 5 p.m. at Bethel

Saturday, May 7, 2011 (at St. Thomas)
Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 11 a.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6, 4 p.m. (if necessary)

How They Got Here:
St. Thomas secured the tournament's top seed by completing a perfect 22-0 run through the conference regular-season. … Gustavus heads into the weekend as the tourney's No. 2 seed, finishing the regular-season 18-3-1 in conference play. … Saint Mary's locked up the No. 3 seed with wins in three of their last four conference games — including an impressive 14-4, 11-1 sweep of Carleton to close out their MIAC schedule on Tuesday. … Hamline needed tiebreaker criteria to break a fourth-place tie and earn the final tournament berth. The Pipers and Bethel both finished with 14-8 MIAC records, and since they split their season series, the tie was broken by the second criteria, which is cumulative record against each team from the bottom up of those teams tied. Both swept 12th-place Macalester and 11th-place St. Catherine. Hamline swept 10th-place Carleton, while Bethel split with the Knights to break the tie in the Pipers' favor.

How They Fared — 2011 Regular Season:
St. Thomas vs. Hamline — April 9, 2011
Sydney Marquardt and Kayla Boward each had five hits on the day as St. Thomas swept its doublehader atHamline. The Tommies banged out a 23 hits in the two games, posting wins of 6-2 and 10-3.

Saint Mary's vs. Gustavus — May 1, 2011
The Cardinals and Gusties split their regular-season showdown in St. Peter, Minn., with SMU riding the complete-game, six-hit pitching performance of Kayla Peterson (Lewiston, Minn.) to a 4-1 Game 1 win, while the Gusties bounced back in the nightcap, scoring twice in both the first and second innings en route to a 5-0 victory.

Saint Mary's vs. St. Thomas — March 30, 2011
St. Thomas belted five home runs on the afternoon — three solo shots to account for all three runs in a 3-2 Game 1 win, and two more round-trippers in the Tommies' 9-3 victory in the nightcap, as UST swept the Cardinals in Winona, Minn.

St. Thomas vs. Gustavus — April 21, 2011
Kayla Boward went 6-for-7 on the day and the host Tommies pounded 24 hits in an 8-0, 11-3 sweep of Gustavus in MIAC play at UST's South Field. Game one lasted just five innings and game two was halted in the sixth inning by the eight-run rule.

Gustavus vs. Hamline — April 7, 2011
The Gusties took a pair from the Pipers, winning 6-2 and 7-6. Dani Cattrysse, Lisa Klass and Emily Wendorf all had two hits and Cattrysse drove in four runs as Gustavus beat Hamline 6-2 in the opener. The Gusties then completed the sweep with a 7-6 victory in a game — scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth inning in a game called after six innings due to darkness.

Saint Mary's vs. Hamline — April 23
Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) and Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) each had two hits — while SMU's other six hits came from six different players — as the Cardinals topped Hamline 4-1 in the opener of their MIAC doubleheader in Winona, Minn. Gannon, Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn., Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn., Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.) and Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) all had two hits for SMU in the nightcap, as the Cardinals completed the sweep with a 7-0 win.

MIAC Tournament — A Year Ago:
St. Thomas cruised through the tournament a year ago, going 3-0 to earn the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament. UST opened with a 9-2 win over fourth-seeded St. Olaf, followed that up with a 5-1 win over No. 3 Bethel, and clinched the title with a 4-0 win over second-seeded Gustavus in the championship game.

St. Thomas Tommies Around The Horn:
Team Page | 2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
For the fourth time in the last eight seasons, St. Thomas finished unbeaten (22-0) in the MIAC regular season. … The Tommies swept St. Ben's, Macalester and St. Olaf in a four-day stretch last weekend to run their season win streak to 26. … The Tommies are the top seed in the four-team MIAC playoffs for the seventh time in the eight-year history of the event. … UST is unbeaten in the seven-year history of the conference playoffs (21-0 all-time). … The Tommies have won 39 consecutive games vs. MIAC opponents since a Game 2 loss to Saint Mary's in April 2010. … Coach John Tschida recently coached his 750th college game in a 17-year career at Saint Mary's and UST and coached his 500th match with the Tommies. He has the top winning percentage among all coaches in NCAA softball or baseball history with has a 649-110 career record (.855). … In 11 seasons at St. Thomas, Tschida's teams have swept 112 conference twinbills, split eight, and have been swept just once, and in all games vs. conference opponents are 232-10 (.959). … UST posted its 12th consecutive 30-win season and is looking to achieve its eighth consecutive 40-win season and make the NCAA playoffs for the 15th time in the last 16 seasons. … St. Thomas batted .391 in conference play led by Kayla Boward's MIAC-best .567 clip. Boward is batting .457 in all 40 games after hitting .357 in 2010 and .222 in 2009. … Emily Gregory has hit seven home runs in her last 10 games. On the season, she has a .742 slug% and eight home runs. … All-American Sydney Marquardt is batting .461 and has 59 hits, 51 RBIs and a .648 slugging percentage in 40 games. Despite playing just three seasons, Marquardt is third on the UST career list with 44 doubles, including 37 in the last two seasons. … Erica Wilson had 30 steals, 21 walks and 46 runs in 39 games and is batting .414. … UST broke into the NFCA Division III poll last week at No. 21. Three of the Tommies' four losses have come against other nationally-ranked teams — No. 7 Whitewater (8-1 loss); No. 12 Eastern Connecticut (6-4 loss); and No. 23 UW-Eau Claire (won 2-0, lost 12-8). The fourth defeat came in a doubleheader with UW-La Crosse, a 2010 NCAA playoff qualifier.. … The Tommies, who finished 18-0 in April, are averaging eight runs a game and batting .371 as a team with seven starters hitting over .397 and an eighth hitting .381. … Ten different players have at least one home run for St. Thomas. … UST has used six different pitchers, and none has worked 100 innings thus far in 2011. Biz Sitzmann pitched just 24 career innings from 2008-2010, but has had a breakout season with a 15-1 record and 2.98 ERA. Senior Cassie Smith led all MIAC pitcher in conference games in lowest ERA at 1.32 as she posted an 8-0 record.

Gustavus Gusties Around The Horn:
Team Page | 2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
The Gusties enter tournament playing having won three straight and nine of their last 10 — with the lone loss in that span a 4-1 setback to Friday's tournament-opening opponent Saint Mary's last Sunday. … Since opening the season with four straight losses, Gustavus has gone 25-8-1 in its last 34 games. … All three of GAC's wins during their current three-game win streak have been by shutout — 5-0 in Game 2 vs. Saint Mary's, and 7-0, 1-0 vs. Saint Benedict on Wednesday. … The Gusties enter tournament play hitting .325 as a team, led by Jenny Ewert's team-best .382 batting average. … Ewert is one of 11 Gusties hitting .300 or better. … Ewert also leads the team in runs, while sharing the team lead in hits (39) with Lisa Klass, and doubles (9) with Klass and Kate Rentschler. … The Gusties have belted 20 home runs this season, led by Rentschler, Emily Wendorff and Jen Ulmen with four each. … Rentschler is the team's RBI leader with 24. She is one of nine Gusties boasting 10 or more RBIs this season. … GAC has scored 229 runs this season and has nine players who have scored 10 or more runs. … Rentschler, who has tossed back-to-back complete game shutouts in her last two starts, has thrown a team-leading 125 innings, compiling a 16-7 record and a 3.14 ERA. She also leads the team in appearances (26), starts (23), complete games (13) and strikeouts (89). … Gustavus has scored 40 or more runs in each of the first four innings, including 53 runs in their first at-bat. … GAC is 14-1-1 when scoring in the first inning and 19-1-1 when scoring the game's first run. … The Gusties are 21-0-1 when leading after the fourth inning.

Saint Mary's Cardinals Around The Horn:
Team Page | 2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
With their regular season-ending sweep of Carleton on Tuesday, the Cardinals enter the post-season having won 10 of their last 12 conference games. … With their two wins vs. Carleton on Tuesday, the Cardinals improved to 22-14, marking SMU's first 20-win season since 2007, when the Cardinals finished 24-14 — including a 2-2 showing in the MIAC Tournament. … The Cardinals belted six home runs in their tournament-clinching sweep of Carleton on Tuesday — including HRs from three of their four seniors, who were playing their final collegiate home games. … With their six round-trippers, SMU has now hit a conference-best 24 home runs this season and the Cardinals are one HR shy of the school record, set in 2005. … Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) tied Katy Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) for the team lead in home runs with a pair of Game 1 HRs vs. Carleton Tuesday. The two-home run game was the first of Stenseth's career and gave her seven for the season. … Kellie Simons (Richfield, Minn.), Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) and Joanna Mangan (Chicago, Ill.) — all seniors — and Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) also hit home runs vs. Carleton. … Mangan's three-run HR in Game 2 was the first of her collegiate career. … SMU's four Game 1 home runs vs. Carleton were the most since 2005, when the Cardinals belted four against both Pacific University and St. Olaf. … SMU equaled a season high with their 14 runs in its 14-4 Game 1 win over Carleton Tuesday. … Carter enters post-season play hitting a team-best .400. She is one of seven Cardinals hitting above .300, helping SMU to a .324 team batting average. … Carter also leads the team in hits (46), doubles (12), RBIs (35) and slugging percentage (.609). … Stenseth is the team leader in at-bats (126) and runs (32), while sharing the team lead in home runs (7) with Gannon. … Gannon has now hit 19 career home runs — ranking her second all-time, seven HRs back of career leader Jill Hocking. … SMU has eight players with 10 or more RBIs and nine who have scored 10 or more runs. … Gannon enters the MIAC Tournament having started every game during her four-year career, a span of 152 straight starts — all at shortstop. … Betzold picked up her team-leading, and single-season career-high, 14th win in Game 1 against Carleton Tuesday. … Betzold enters tournament play 14-7 with a 2.61 ERA. She has thrown 123.1 innings, including nine complete games, and has struck out 72 batters. … Betzold did not walk a batter in 4.2 innings of work Tuesday, and has now walked just one batter in 53.2 innings — spanning 11 games. … SMU erupted for 10 first-inning runs vs. Concordia in the opener on April 17, marking the most runs scored in a single inning since scoring 13 runs in the second inning of a 27-0 win over Mount Mary College in Tucson, Ariz., on March 20, 2009. … With their eight-inning Game 1 win vs. St. Catherine on April 29, the Cardinals are now 4-0 in extra-inning games this season. … SMU's two extra-inning wins vs. Augsburg on April 13 marked the first time both games of a Cardinal doubleheader have gone to extra inning since SMU dropped 3-2 and 7-6 decisions to Saint Benedict on April 25, 2010. … The Cardinals' 5-4, 10-inning win in Game 2 vs. Augsburg on April 13 was their longest game since April 27, 2006, when UW-La Crosse outlasted SMU 3-2 in 11 innings. … SMU's 14-4 and 11-1 five-inning wins over Carleton on Tuesday marked the seventh and eight times this season the Cardinals have won via the eight-run rule. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 40-13 in the first inning. … SMU has scored first in 18 of its 21 wins. … The Cardinals are 10-1 when leading after the sixth inning. … The Cardinals have held their opponents to two runs or less in 16 of their 22 wins. … SMU's 1-0, 8-0 sweep of St. Olaf on April 5 was the Cardinals' first sweep by shutout since SMU blanked St. Catherine 3-0, 7-0 on April 28, 2010.

Hamline Pipers Around The Horn:
Team Page | 2011 Schedule | 2011 Roster | 2011 Overall Statistics
Hamline enters tournament play having won seven of its last eight games, with the lone loss a regular season-ending, 17-8 setback vs. UW-Stout on Wednesday. … The Pipers have been a streaky team this season. After opening the season 2-3 in their first five spring trip games, Hamline has lost three straight, won five straight, dropped seven in a row, won seven in a row, lost three straight and won seven straight, before Wednesday's 17-8 Game 2 loss to the Blue Devils. … UW-Stout's 17 Game 2 runs Wednesday were the most allowed by the Pipers this season. … In their last two losses, Hamline has surrendered 32 runs — 15 in a 15-12 loss to Augsburg on April 29 and 17 in Wednesday's 17-8 loss to UW-Stout. … Bethany Hine enters tournament play as the Pipers' offensive leader, boasting team highs in batting average (.413), at-bats (126), runs (40), hits (52), triples (5) and total bases (70). … Hine also shares the team lead in doubles (8) with Erin Farley. … Fueled by nine players hitting .300 or better, the Pipers come into Friday's opener vs. St. Thomas hitting .326. … The Pipers boast three players who have scored 30 or more runs, and eight who have scored 10 or more times. … Heidi Larson owns a team-best 36 RBIs, while Farley boasts a team-best .613 slugging percentage. … Larsen (6), Farley (5) and Laura Randall (4) have combing for 15 of the team's 22 home runs. … Hine has compiled 17 multiple-hit games — including three four-hit games — and shares the team lead in multiple-RBI games (9) with Randall and Farley. … Kelsey Tacheny has been the workhorse of the Piper pitching staff, compiling a 15-7 record and a 4.50 ERA in 146 innings. She has made 30 appearances, including 23 starts, with 16 complete games and 66 strikeouts. … Hamline has outscored its opponents 51-38 in the first inning and is 13-3 when scoring the game's first run. … The Pipers are a perfect 14-0 when leading after six innings, but on the flip side, Hamline is 0-12 when trailing heading into the seventh inning.