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WINONA, Minn. — After scoring 35 runs in beating up Saint Benedict and Concordia in their last two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheaders, Hamline gave the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team a taste of their own medicine Tuesday afternoon at the SMU Field.

The Pipers, who entered the day trailing second-place SMU by one game, blasted five home runs — two in Game 1 and three more in Game 2 — in handing the Cardinals 9-5 and 9-1 setbacks.

Hamline used a pair of squeeze bunts to score two third-inning runs and break a scoreless deadlock in the opener, before pushing that advantage to 5-0 with three more runs in the top of the fifth.

Saint Mary's answered in the bottom half of the fifth, as the Cardinals flexed their muscles a bit, using a pair of home runs — a lead-off solo shot by Kristin Thelen and a two-run blast by Nat Boissiere (Plymouth, Minn.) — to highlight a five-run inning and knot the game at 5-5.

The Pipers quickly wrestled the momentum back, as Lauren Clouston and Laura Randall delivered a pair of two-run home runs in the top of the sixth to give HU the lead for good.

Thelen — whose fifth-inning home run was the first of her collegiate career — picked up a pair of Game 1 hits, while Boissiere, Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) and Mel Hamilton (Homewood, Ill.) also posted two-hit games.

Hamline picked up right where it left off in Game 2, as the Pipers scored single runs in the first and second innings — including a solo home run by Samantha Mau in the second inning.

The Cardinals cut the gap to 2-1 on an RBI single by Hamilton to score Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) in the bottom of the second.

That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offensive attack — while the Pipers were just getting warmed up.

Hamline put together back-to-back three- run innings in the third and fourth, then closed out the game with a solo run in the fifth to end the game by the eight-run rule.

Carter finished 2-for-2 with a run scored, while Ohl, Hamilton, Anna Ramboldt (Goodhue, Minn.) and Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) accounted for SMU's other four hits.

The Cardinals, who had their four-game winning streak snapped with the Game 1 loss Tuesday, are back in action on Friday, as they kick off a busy three-day stretch with a conference doubleheader at St. Catherine. SMU then travels to Gustavus on Saturday, before returning home for Senior Day on Sunday against Macalester.