Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  | GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — It wasn't quite the conference-opener Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller was hoping for.
 
Gustavus used a pair of big innings — a four-run fourth and a five-run fifth — as the Gusties dealt SMU a 5-1, 8-0 setback in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener Saturday afternoon.
 
After three scoreless innings, the Cardinals plated the game's first run in the top of the fourth of the opener, as Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) walked, was sacrificed to second and scored on Ashley Betzold's (Farmington, Minn.) RBI single.
 
The lead, however, didn't last long, as Gustavus answered with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the fourth — then tacked on another run on Carly Class' lead-off home run to center field in the sixth.
 
Betzold's single in the fourth was one of just two hits for the Cardinals off GAC starter Hannah Heacox, who walked one and finished with 11 strikeouts. Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) accounted for SMU's other hit — a second-inning single — while Betzold went the distance on the mound, allowing five runs on nine hits, while walking one and striking out three.
 
The Gusties didn't wait as long to get on the board in Game 2, as GAC put up five runs in the bottom of the first inning — and never looked back.
 
Bouyed by the five-run cushion, GAC would add another one in the second — on their second home run of the afternoon — before icing the five-inning win with two runs in the bottom of the fifth.
 
For the second straight game, the Cardinals were limited to two hits in the nightcap off GAC pitcher Jessica Williams — a single by Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.) to open the game and a two-out, infield single by Katie Krull (Rochester, Minn.) in the second.
 
The Cardinals (0-2 MIAC, 4-8 overall) are right back in action on the Gustavus diamond on Sunday, as SMU squares off against St. Olaf in a conference doubleheader scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.