Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  | GameDay Preview

WINONA, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, Tuesday's regular-season finale against Gustavus had its good news, and its bad news.

First the bad news … Gustavus handed the Cardinals a pair of  losses — scoring all 10 of their runs in the first two innings in posting a 10-1, five-inning victory in the opener of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at the SMU Field, then following that up by plating four of their five runs in the seventh inning of a 5-2, come-from-behind victory in the nightcap.

Now the good news … Despite the losses, the Cardinals will be joining the Gusties, Augsburg and St. Thomas at the Rice Creek Fields in Shoreview, Minn., for the double-elimination MIAC Tournament, which kicks off Friday.

“We certainly would have liked to have ended (the regular-season) on a little better note,” admitted SMU coach Jen Miller, whose team finished fourth in the league standings and will open tournament play against regular-season champion and top-seeded St. Thomas at 3 p.m. Friday. “(Gustavus) came out swinging early in the first game, put us in a deep hole and we just never could get on track.

“In the second game, we had our chances — we just couldn't keep them off the board in the seventh inning,” Miller added. “If there's a silver lining, it's that we get to keep playing.”

“We just have to put these two games behind us and make sure we are ready to go (on Friday).”

The Gusties scored all the runs they would need in their first at-bat in the opener, scoring five times — four coming on Kat Dahl's two-out grand slam home run. GAC then recorded its second straight five-run inning in the second to put the game out of reach.

GAC pitcher Kate Rentschler limited the Cardinals to just two Game 1 hits — a first-inning single by Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) and a second-inning single by Breanna Olson (Byron, Minn.).

SMU scored its lone run in the fourth — without the benefit of a hit — as the Cardinals loaded the bases on back-to-back walks and a throwing error, before Melanie Hamilton (Homewood, Ill.) scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Olson.

The Cardinals and Gusties battled to a scoreless deadlock through the game's first four innings in the second game. GAC broke the ice with a single run in the top of the fifth, but SMU answered, scoring twice in the bottom of the inning. Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.) scored on a passed ball and Anna Ramboldt (Goodhue, Minn.) delivered an RBI single up the middle.

After a scoreless sixth, disaster struck for the Cardinals, as the Gusties parlayed five hits in four runs for the sweep-clinching, come-from-behind victory.

SMU held an 11-10 advantage in hits in Game 2, with eight of SMU's nine starters collecting at least one hit — led by Thelen, Ramboldt and Ohl with two hits each.