Box Score  | GameDay Preview

MANKATO, Minn. — Talk about a case of bad timing.

The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team entered the pool play portion of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Friday averaging nearly six runs scored per game through their 31 regular-season games.

In their two tournament games, however, the Cardinals managed just six runs — combined — as SMU dropped a tournament-opening 11-2 decision to Carleton, before being eliminated by Gustavus 8-4 at Caswell Park.

Gustavus opened the scoring with a single run in the top of the first on an RBI single by Sarah Rozell. The score remained 1-0 until the fifth, when the Gusties plated two more runs on RBI singles by Christina Riester and Kate Rentschler to make it 3-0.

SMU finally got on the board on an Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) single to cut the gap to 3-1, but the Gusties promptly answered with four runs in the top of the sixth and another in the seventh to make it 8-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The Cardinals tried to put together a last-gasp rally, scoring three runs on six hits in their final at-bat — including RBI singles from Nat Boissiere (Plymouth, Minn.), Paige Carter (Rosemount, Minn.) and Taylor Lehmann (Houston, Minn.) — but it was too little, too late.

Raske finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals, while Anna Ramboldt (Goodhue, Minn.) and Hailey Ohl (Bloomington, Minn.) each added two hits.

The Cardinals, who were making their third straight appearance in the MIAC Tournament, close out their season with an 18-15 overall record.