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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team found itself playing catch-up during the first game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against Carleton Tuesday afternoon.
 
And, unfortunately for coach Jen Miller, the Cardinals could never quite catch up.
 
Trailing 3-0, SMU cut the lead to 3-2, and, after the Knights grabbed a 4-2 advantage, the Cardinals again crept within one — only to leave the game-tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh inning of Carleton's 4-3 victory at SMU Field.
 
The teams traded roles in the nightcap, as SMU jumped out to comfortable 5-0 lead after two innings. The Knights, however, refused to follow the Game 1 script — not only catching the Cardinals with a five-run fifth, but also adding four more unanswered runs and holding off a late SMU rally to complete the sweep with a 9-8 victory.
 
Carleton scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings en route to its 3-0 lead. SMU made it a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth, as Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) delivered an RBI double and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) scored on a Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) sacrifice fly.
 
The Knights padded their lead with a solo run in the top of the seventh, and the Cardinals answered in their half of the game's final inning, as Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.) singled, advanced to second and scored on a Harper two-out RBI single.
 
That, however, would be as close as SMU would get, as Carleton pitcher Keelin Davis got Raske to pop out to end the innings — and the game.
 
Thelen accounted for three of SMU's six Game 1 hits, as the senior went 3-for-4 and scored two runs. Harper, Raske and Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) accounted for SMU's other three hits.
 
The Cardinals took advantage of four Carleton first-inning errors to plate three runs in their opening at-bat, before adding two more in the second on a Raske two-out, two-run double to center.
 
Carleton took a page out of the Cardinals' first-inning playbook in the third, using three SMU errors to score five runs, before adding three more runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to take a 9-5 advantage.
 
SMU cut the gap to 9-8 with three runs in the fifth — highlighted by a Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn.) RBI double and a run-scoring single by Toni Hunsinger (Farmington Minn.) — but the Cardinals failed to generate a hit in their final two at-bats in dropping their second straight one-run game.
 
Raske continued her torrid hitting in Game 2, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Harper and Urban each had two hits.
 
The Cardinals (2-4 MIAC, 6-10 overall) are right back in action on Wednesday, traveling to Minneapolis, Minn., for a 4 p.m. MIAC doubleheader against Augsburg at Edor Nelson Field.