WINONA, Minn. — After back-to-back road doubleheaders, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team returns home to the Saint Mary's Field for Saturday's 1 p.m. Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline.
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (7-9 MIAC | 13-15 Overall) vs. Hamline Pipers (15-1 MIAC | 22-6 Overall)
 
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Live Stats | GameDay Program
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals suffered a pair conference losses on Thursday, as two St. Catherine pitchers held them to a combined four hits in beating Saint Mary's 6-0 and 2-0 in St. Paul, Minn. | Recap
• Hamline: The Pipers survived a pair of late Saint Benedict rallies to maintain its stranglehold on first place in the conference standings, beating the Blazers 6-4 and 6-5 Thursday in St. Paul, Minn. | Recap
 
Saint Mary's vs. Hamline—A Year Ago:
• April 22, 2014: Take away the first five batters, and Saint Mary's limited high-powered Hamline to just two runs—while scoring three runs of their own—in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at HU's Meredith Field in St. Paul, Minn. Unfortunately, those first five batters all came around to score and Hamline rode that five-run first inning to a 5-3 victory in Game 1. The Pipers didn't score in their first at-bat in the nightcap, but they did score single runs in the third and fourth to complete the sweep with a 2-0 triumph. | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals are right back in action on Sunday, traveling to Decorah, Iowa, for a 2 p.m. nonconference doubleheader against nationally ranked Luther.
• Hamline: The Pipers are off until Wednesday, when they host Bethel in a 3:30 p.m. MIAC doubleheader at Meredith Field in St. Paul, Minn.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
After back-to-back road doubleheaders, the Cardinals return home Saturday against Hamline. The Cardinals are 4-4 in their eight contests at the Saint Mary's Field. … Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.), Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.), Sam Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) and Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' four hits against St. Catherine Thursday. … Opsahl's seventh-inning Game 2 single broke up St. Catherine pitcher Megan Lindenfelser's no-hit bid. … Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) has now had a hit in seven of the Cardinals' last eight games—including two hits four times. … Raske (Chicago, Ill.) belted her second home run of the season vs. Saint Benedict last Tuesday. … Saint Mary's boasts three players who have hit their first collegiate home runs this season—Stanzy Snyder (Johnston, Iowa), Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.), and Sam Borawski. … Opsahl and Snyder enters Saint Mary's doubleheader against Hamline leading the team in batting average at .374 and .373, respectively. … Opsahl also leads the team with 34 hits, three more than Snyder, and 21 RBIs. … Snyder boasts team-highs in doubles (9), triples (2), total bases (47), slugging percentage (.566), walks (14) and on-base percentage (.475). … Raske scored three runs in Saint Mary's DH vs. Saint Benedict last Tuesday, pushing her team-leading run total to 22. She has scored 14 times in Saint Mary's last 17 contests. … Opsahl has recorded a team-best 12 multiple-RBI and five multiple-RBI games. … Opsahl's five RBIs in Game 2 vs. Carleton on March 31 marked the second time in her collegiate career the sophomore has driven in five runs in a game. … Snyder had her season- and team-high nine-game hitting streak snapped in Game 2 vs. St. Thomas on April 8. … Betzold tossed her team-leading 14th complete game in Saint Mary's 3-1 Game 2 loss to Saint Benedict last Tuesday. … Betzold has been the Cardinals' workhorse in the pitcher's circle, logging 151.2 innings. The sophomore right-hander has compiled a 10-12 record and a 2.68 ERA in a team-high 26 appearances. … Betzold has struck out a team-best 76 batters, including a season-high nine against Augsburg in Game 1 on April 11—one shy of her career-high—and owns both of the team's shutouts. … Katie Homan—who notched her first collegiate pitching win with a complete-game three-hitter in a 4-1 win over Misericordia on March 2—is 2-3 with a 3.39 ERA in 33.0 IP. … Abbey Killian (Fountain City, Wis.) collected her first collegiate win with 2/3 innings of hitless relief in Game 2 against Gustavus on April 6. …  The Cardinals have held their opponents to two runs or less in eight of their 13 wins. … The Cardinals' 13 runs in their 13-4 Game 1 victory over Saint Benedict last Tuesday marked the third time this season they have plated 10 or more runs—and was just one run shy of their season-high 14-run effort in a 14-5 triumph over Carleton on March 31. … Two of the Cardinals' last three wins have both been walk-offs—Betzold belted a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning of Saint Mary's 3-1 Game 1 win over St. Olaf on April 10, while Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) delivered a game-ending RBI single, capping a two-run seventh inning in the Cardinals' 5-4 Game 2 win over Augsburg a day later. … Saint Mary's 14-5, six-inning Game 2 victory over Carleton on March 31 was its second win shortened by the eight-run rule. … Twelve of Saint Mary's 28 games have been decided by one run. … With their 4-1, 5-4 sweep of Gustavus on April 6, the Cardinals snapped a pair of lengthy streaks against the Gusties. The Game 1 victory ended Saint Mary's 11-game losing streak vs. GAC—dating back to an identical 4-1 win on May 2, 2011. And the sweep-clinching 5-4 win in the nightcap completed the Cardinals' first sweep of the Gusties since winning 5-3 and 9-1 on April 12, 2005—a span of nine years and 18 regular-season games.  
  
Scouting The Hamline Pipers:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
With their sweep of Saint Benedict Thursday, the Pipers pushed their program-record winning streak to 11 in a row. … The Pipers have also won 17 of their last 18 games—the lone blemish an 8-2 Game 1 loss to St. Thomas on April 2. … At 15-1 in conference play, HU is currently leading the league, two games in front of second-place Bethel in its quest for the program's first-ever regular-season MIAC title. … 
Jamie Rubbelke rapped out five hits and scored four times in Hamline's sweep of Saint Benedict Thursday, while Amanda Orrell had three hits, scored three times and drove in three runs. … Hamline enters Saturday's doubleheader at Saint Mary's hitting .322 as a team, led by Mary-Clare Coullard (.440) and Amanda Orrell (.418). … Coullard also leads the team in at-bats (100) and hits (44), while Orrell is the team leader in total bases (59), slugging percentage (.602) and stolen bases (5-for-7). … Coullard has had at least one hit in 18 of the Pipers' last 19 contests. … Rubbelke (.364) has scored a team-best 28 runs—one more than Orrell—and is also the team-leader in doubles (9) and walks (20). … HU has launched eight home runs, led by Casey Anderson with three, and Rubbelke and Orrell with two each. … Anderson has driven in a team-leading 26 runs. … Hamline has collected 261 hits through 28 games—including 57 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. … Hamline boasts three players with 10 or more multiple-hit games, led by Coullard with 14, while Anderson has amassed a team-high seven multiple-RBI games. … The Pipers have rode the pitching arms of Anderson and Sarah DeMars to their 22-6 overall record. Anderson has compiled a 12-3 record and 2.13 ERA in a team-high 111.2 innings, while DeMars is 10-3 with a 3.43 ERA in 78.1 innings of work. … Anderson has thrown 11 complete games and struck out 55 batters in 19 appearances, with DeMars collecting nine complete games and 44 strikeouts in 17 outings. … Hamline has scored 10 or more runs in a game twice—beating Concordia 11-3 and Augsburg 10-5. … Hamline is 9-1 on its home diamond, while going 13-5 away from Meredith Field.