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WEST ST. PAUL, Minn. — Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller knew her Cardinals would have their hands full when they took the field Monday afternoon against nationally ranked and league-leading St. Thomas.
 
And how right she was.
 
The Tommies — winners of 15 straight and 96 of their last 98 regular-season Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games — flexed their muscles against the Cardinals, erupting for 19 runs on 25 hits in sweeping the teams' conference doubleheader at the West St. Paul Dome.
 
UST used a pair of four-run innings — the second thanks to a Brenna Walek grand slam home run — in beating the Cardinals 10-0 in five innings in the opener, while scoring in each of the first four innings in completing the sweep with a 9-0, five-inning victory in the nightcap.
 
"That wasn't exactly the way we wanted to close out the season," said SMU coach Jen Miller. "But St. Thomas is a very good team — they swung the bats very well and their pitching was outstanding.
 
"We knew coming in that (St. Thomas) was going to be tough to beat — and they certainly were."
 
St. Thomas scored four runs on six hits — including two doubles and a home run — in grabbing a 4-0 lead in the opener. The Tommies added two more extra-base hits, this time a pair of doubles, in scoring twice more in the second, before Walek belted her team-leading 13th home run of the season — a bases-clearing fourth-inning blast — to push UST's lead to 10-0.
 
The Tommies' continued its offensive onslaught in Game 2, scoring once in the first, three times in the second, twice in the third and three times in the fourth in sealing their 17th straight win.
 
Four UST pitchers held the Cardinals to just six hits — three in each game. Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.), Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) and Emily Nelson (Maplewood, Minn.) picked up Saint Mary's three hits in the opener, while Betzold added two more singles in Game 2 and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) picked up the Cardinals' other hit.
 
Emily Gregory led the way for the Tommies, going 4-for-5 with 7 RBIs — including career home runs No. 38 and 39.
 
"It's tough to see the season end — and we are really going to miss Kristen (Thelen) next year," said Miller of her lone graduating senior, who finished among the top two in virtually every offensive category this season. "But we're also looking forward to what the future holds. We were an extremely young team this season, and hopefully, the experience gained this season will pay off in years to come."