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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team went to both ends of the spectrum to record its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of St Catherine Friday at the SMU Field.
 
The Cardinals rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a run in the bottom of the seventh, then won it with a walk-off double by Micaela Meredith (Bloomington, Minn.) in the bottom of the eighth in beating the Wildcats 2-1 in the opener.
 
In the nightcap, the Cardinals took a much more offensive approach, scoring runs in four of their five at-bats — including a four-run fourth — in completing the sweep with an 8-0, five-inning victory.
 
St. Catherine broke scoreless pitcher's duel with a single run off SMU starter Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) in the fifth inning of the opener.
 
And the game would remain 1-0 until the seventh, when SMU scored the game-tying run on an Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) two-out infield single to score Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.).
 
In the eighth, the SMU's Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn.) induced a two-out walk, and scored when Meredith delivered a game-ending RBI double to left-center to score Urban all the way from first.
 
Six different players accounted for SMU's six Game 1 hits, while Betzold picked up the complete-game pitching win, scattering seven hits and striking out six in eight innings of work.
 
SMU wasn't about to wait until the latter innings to get their offense cranked up in Game 2, as the Cardinals scored twice in the first inning — both runs coming on a two-run single by Emily Nelson (Maplewood, Minn.) — and added an unearned run in the second to make it 3-0.
 
After failing to score in the third, SMU broke the game open in the fourth, scoring four times — highlighted by a two-run double from Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) and a two-run single by Betzold — before icing the five-inning victory when Thelen plated Toni Hunsinger (Farmington, Minn.) with the Cardinals' eighth run with one out in the fifth.
 
Betzold, Harper and Hunsinger each finished with two hits and a pair of RBIs to pace SMU's 11-hit attack, while Jess Wirz (Eau Claire, Wis.) allowed just two hits in tossing the five-inning shutout.
 
The Cardinals (6-4 MIAC, 10-10 overall) are right back in action on Saturday, as SMU heads to Augsburg's Edor Nelson Field in Minneapolis, Minn.,, for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against Saint Benedict.