ST. PAUL, Minn. — Getting a hit off St. Catherine pitcher Krista Flugstad proved difficult for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team in the opening game of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader Thursday afternoon.
 
Scoring runs off the Wildcat ace was even tougher
 
Flugstad limited the Cardinals to just three hits—all singles and all in different innings—in hurling St. Catherine to a 6-0 Game 1 victory.
 
And it wasn't any easier in Game 2.
 
In fact, getting a hit—much less a run—off SCU Game 2 starter Megan Lindenfelser was virtually impossible.
 
Lindenfelser did her opening-game counterpart two better, as the freshman took a no-hitter into the seventh—before surrendering a one-out Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) single—in leading the Wildcats to a second-straight shutout win, 2-0.
 
Flugstad and Cardinal starter Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) were locked in a pitcher's duel for the first four innings of the opener, as Betzold limited SCU to just a pair of singles—one in the first and one in the fourth—while Flugstad allowed singles to Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) in the third and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) in the fourth.
 
St. Catherine finally got to Betzold in the fifth, as Jessi Tyminski belted a lead-off home run to give SCU the game's first run—and jump-start a Wildcat offense that then erupted for five sixth-inning runs to ice the victory.
 
Sam Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) accounted for the Cardinals' third hit—a fifth-inning, one-out single—while Betzold suffered the pitching loss, allowing six runs on nine hits in five innings.
 
In the nightcap, the Wildcats got on the board in their first at-bat on an RBI ground-out by Lindenfelser, before pushing the advantage to 2-0 on SCU's second home run of the afternoon—a one-out bomb by Robyn Rohr.
 
And two runs was more than enough with Lindenfelser in the pitcher's circle. Lindenfelser allowed just three base runners—first-inning and fifth-inning lead-off walks to Raske and Harper, and Opsahl's one-out seventh-inning single—and struck out six.
 
After back-to-back road conference doubleheaders, the Cardinals (7-9 MIAC, 13-15 overall) return home on Saturday, entertaining Hamline in a 1 p.m. MIAC twinbill at the Saint Mary's Field.