CLERMONT, Fla. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team had to work a little overtime to pick up its first win of the afternoon on Monday.
 
The Cardinals—playing their second straight extra-inning game—got a pinch-hit, RBI single by Alexa Diteman (Burnsville, Minn.) in the bottom of the eighth inning, lifting Saint Mary's to a 3-2 nonconference win over DeSales in their first game of the day.
 
Saint Mary's Katie Homan (North Mankato, Minn.) made sure extra innings would not be necessary in their second game of the day, as the freshman right-hander tossed a complete-game three-hitter in guiding the Cardinals to a 4-1 win over Misericordia. 
 
DeSales broke a scoreless deadlock with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning in the Cardinals' opening game, but Saint Mary's answered with two runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single from Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) and a run-scoring double by Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.)—setting up Diteman's eighth-inning heroics
 
Opsahl and Betzold each went 2-for-4 to pace the Cardinals' offensive attack vs. DeSales, while Betzold also went the distance on the mound—scattering seven hits and allowing a pair of unearned runs—to pick up her first pitching win of the season.
 
The Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 lead over Misericordia—sandwiching single runs in the third and fifth around a two-run fourth—before the Cougars spoiled Homan's shutout bid with a solo home run in the sixth.
 
While Homan was doing her part in the pitcher's circle in Game 2—striking out four en route to her first collegiate win—the Cardinal offense got 2-for-3 performances from Stanzy Snyder (Johnston, Iowa) and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.). Harper also drove in two of the Cardinals' four runs.
 
The Cardinals (4-2 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, squaring off against Roanoke and Widener in nonconference games in Clermont, Fla.