Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  | GameDay Preview

ST. PAUL, Minn. — With three doubleheaders in a three-day span, Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller was looking for her Cardinals to get this stretch of games off to a blazing start Friday against St. Catherine.

Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, Game 2 didn't go quite as planned — and that blazing start cooled in a hurry.

The Cardinals kicked off its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against the Wildcats in impressive fashion, cruising to a 6-2 victory in the opener.

St. Catherine, however, put the brakes on SMU's run to a conference sweep in the nightcap, scoring five unanswered runs — including four in the fourth inning — en route to a 7-3 victory.

The Cardinals used a big third inning to race out to a 3-0 advantage in the opener, as SMU took advantage of two St. Catherine errors in scoring three third-inning runs.

The Wildcats got one run back in the bottom of the third, but an RBI single by Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.) in the fourth and a run-scoring single by Anna Ramboldt (Goodhue, Minn.) in the fifth pushed the Cardinals' lead to 5-1. Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) accounted for SMU's final run, belting her team-leading sixth home run of the season to lead off the seventh inning.

Raske, Ramboldt and Micaela Meredith (Bloomington, Minn.) accounted for six of SMU's eight hits in the opener, as the trio all collected two hits, with Raske and Ramboldt also driving in one run. Kayla Peterson (Lewiston, Minn.) picked up her 10th win of the season, tossing a complete-game seven hitter with one walk and one strikeout.

It was the Wildcats' Lindsey Klein who put together a complete-game pitching performance in the nightcap, limiting SMU to just five hits — including two from Thelen and two from Ramboldt — and striking out five.

SMU got on the board in its first at-bat in Game 2 on a Raske sacrifice fly, but St. Catherine got to SMU starter Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) for two runs in the bottom of the first.

The Cardinals regained the advantage, 3-2 — thanks to a two-run double by Ramboldt in the fifth — but St. Catherine would rattle off five straight runs, including four in the bottom of the fourth, to seal the win and the conference split.

The Cardinals (9-5 MIAC, 16-9 overall) are right back on the road on Saturday, as SMU travels to St. Peter, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against Gustavus.