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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team got off to a roaring start in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against St. Thomas Monday — scoring three times in their first at-bat.

The 20th-ranked Tommies, on the other hand, took a little while to get warmed up.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, once they were warmed up, the Tommies were virtually unstoppable.

UST scored 13 unanswered runs, erasing a 4-0 SMU lead in the opener en route to a 6-4 victory, before opening Game 2 with a home run — on the very first pitch — in tallying the game's first seven runs in a 7-1 sweep-clinching victory in the nightcap at Winona State University's Alumni Field.

The Cardinals didn't waste any time getting on the board, as Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) delivered a two-run, two-out single and SMU added an unearned run on a throwing error by UST pitcher Morgan Murphy to grab a 3-0 first-inning advantage.

Raske delivered another RBI single in the third to push the Cardinals' lead to 4-0, only to have UST score the game's next six runs — pushing one run across in the top of the fourth, before adding a pair of unearned runs in the fifth and three more runs in the sixth — to take a 6-4 advantage.

An advantage the Tommies would not relinquish in winning their seventh straight, while putting an end to SMU's four-game winning streak.

Raske led the Cardinals' seven-hit offensive attack in the opener, going 3-for-4, while Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) added a 2-for-4, two-run effort. Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) and Mel Hamilton (Homewood, Ill.) accounted for SMU's other two hits off three St. Thomas pitchers.

And the Tommies picked up right where they left off in Game 2, as Jenna Hoffman belted her fifth home run of the season — on the first pitch of the game — to highlight a two-run UST first inning.

UST would make it 4-0 with its second two-run inning of the game in the third, before adding another run in the fourth.

And five runs was more than enough for the Tommies' Kendra Bowe.

Bowe, who picked up the save in Game 1 — setting the Cardinals down in order in both the sixth and seventh innings — was just as dominant as the starter in Game 2. The sophomore right-hander surrendered a one-out, infield single to Ohl in the bottom of the first, before retiring the next 12 batters she faced. Hamilton snapped the streak with a one-out double to left in the fifth, but would get no further as Bowe induced a pop-out and a strikeout to end the inning.

The Cardinals finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh, getting an RBI double from Micaela Meredith (Bloomington, Minn.), but Bowe worked out of the one-out jam, getting Julie Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.) to ground out to second and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) to fly out to left to end the game.

SMU finished with six hits off Bowe in the second game, including doubles by Hamilton, Meredith and Harper. Ohl, Raske and Anna Ramboldt (Goodhue, Minn.) each chipped in a single.

SMU (4-2 MIAC, 11-6 overall) are back in action on Thursday — weather permitting — as the Cardinals host Hamline in a 3:30 p.m. conference doubleheader at the SMU Field.