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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller could not have asked for a better start to the Cardinals nonconference doubleheader against UW-River Falls Sunday afternoon at the Rochester Dome.

The finish, on the other hand, was a different story.

The Cardinals scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning and held off a seventh-inning Falcon threat to beat UW-River Falls 4-3 in the opener. In the nightcap, it was the Falcons who used a big inning to break open a tight contest, as UW-River Falls erupted for nine runs in the top of the fifth, turning a one-run game into an 11-1 Falcon victory.

The Cardinals and Falcons got off to a bit of a slow start in the opener, combing for just two runs in the game's first five innings — SMU's coming on a Nat Boissiere (Plymouth, Minn.) RBI single in the first and UW-River Falls' come on a fielder's choice groundout by Kristy Martinson in the bottom of the fifth.

They may have started slow, the but two teams certainly heated up in the sixth, as SMU scored three runs on four hits — including an RBI single by Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) — only to have UW-River Falls answer with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Clinging to a 4-3 advantage, the Cardinals escaped a second-and-third, two-out jam in the bottom of the seventh, as SMU reliever Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) got Falcon pinch-hitter Abby Veloske to fly out to ice the win.

Boissiere collected two of SMU's six hits, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.), Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.), Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) and Mel Hamilton (Homewood, Ill.) accounted for the other four.

Kayla Peterson (Lewiston, Minn.) earned the pitching win, surrendering three runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings, while Carter worked the final 1.1 innings, allowing two hits en route to her second save of the season.

It was the Falcons who got on the board early in the second game, scoring twice in their first at-bat. SMU cut the deficit to one, 2-1, on a Boissiere RBI single in the bottom of the fourth — only to have disaster strike in the fifth.

The Falcons sent 14 batters to the plate in their half of the fifth, scoring nine runs on eight hits — including back-to-back-to-back home runs — while also taking advantage of a pair of SMU errors.

Boissiere, Carter and Sam Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) accounted for SMU's three hits in Game 2, while UW-River Falls banged out 13 hits against two Cardinal pitchers.

SMU — which had its five-game winning streak snapped in falling to 7-4 overall — is now off until March 28, when the Cardinals travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference-opening doubleheader against Augsburg. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.