WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team closes out the home portion of its schedule on Monday, squaring off against UW-Eau Claire in a 3 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at the Saint Mary's Field.
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (17-17 Overall) vs. UW-Eau Claire Blugolds (24-14 Overall)
 
GameDay Live On The Web:
Live Stats | GameDay Program
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals split their conference showdown against Concordia on Saturday at the Saint Mary's Field, dropping Game 1 1-0, while rebounding with a 6-0 victory in the nightcap | Recap
• UW-Eau Claire: The Blugolds cruised to a pair of nonconference wins on Sunday in Duluth, Minn., beating St. Scholastica 13-0 in five innings, while adding a 7-3 win over Northland | Recap

Saint Mary's vs. UW-Eau Claire—Their Last Meeting:
• April 21, 2011: Mother Nature has made playing conditions less than ideal for Saint Mary's this season—rain, wind, cold, snow, you name it, Mother Nature has thrown it at the Cardinals this season. But Mother Nature's wrath couldn't hold a candle to that of UW-Eau Claire, which made life truly miserable for the Cardinals at the Saint Mary's Field. The 25th-ranked Blugolds banged out three home runs—including a grand slam off the bat of Emily Muller in UW-EC's six-run fourth—and limited SMU to just two singles in a 9-0, five-inning victory in the opener, then delivered three more home runs in the nightcap in completing the sweep with an 8-0, six-inning victory | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals are scheduled to close out their regular season on Tuesday, traveling to Decorah, Iowa, for a nonconference doubleheader against fourth-ranked Luther
• UW-Eau Claire: Monday's games against Saint Mary's are the regular-season finale for the Blugolds, who kick of WIAC tournament play on Friday.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
The Cardinals have been .500 at home (6-6), away (5-5), and in neutral-site games (6-6) en route to their 11-11 conference record and 17-17 overall mark. … Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) allowed just one run on five hits in 14 innings against Concordia last Saturday. The sophomore right-hander tossed a three-hitter in dropping Game 1, 1-0, while rebounding with a two-hit, shutout in the Cardinals' 6-0 Game 2 victory. … Betzold has now tossed a team-leading 18 complete games—ranking second all-time—and has logged 188.0 of the team's 231.2 innings. She has compiled an 14-13 record and a 2.76 ERA in a team-high 32 appearances. … Betzold has struck out a team-best 107 batters, including a season-high nine against Augsburg in Game 1 on April 11, and owns all three of the team's shutouts. … Alex Raske (Chicago, Ill.) went 3-for-4 and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) chipped in a pair of hits in Game 1 vs. Concordia last Saturday, while Stanzy Snyder (Johnston, Iowa) was 3-for-4 and Betzold 2-for-4 in the nightcap. … Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) had a hit in Game 1 vs. the Cobbers and has now had a hit in 12 of the Cardinals' last 14 games—including two hits four times. … Sam Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) hit her second home run of the season—and second of her four-year collegiate career—in the Cardinals' 6-0 win over Concordia in Game 2 last Saturday. … Borawski's home run was the Cardinals' third in their last four games—Raske belted her third home run of the season vs. Macalester last Wednesday, while Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) also hit a round-tripper vs. the Scots. … Saint Mary's boasts four players who have hit their first collegiate home runs this season—Birkhauser, Betzold, Borawski, and Snyder. … Snyder and Opsahl enter Saint Mary's doubleheader against UW-Eau Claire leading the team in batting average at .369 and .351, respectively. … Opsahl also leads the team with 39 hits—one more than Snyder and Raske—and 27 RBIs. … Snyder boasts team-highs in doubles (9), slugging percentage (.524), walks (17) and on-base percentage (.472). … Raske, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, scored five runs in the opener vs. Macalester last Wednesday—it was the most runs scored by a Cardinal player since Jaci Prondzinski scored five times vs. Mount Mary College on March 20, 2009. … Raske now leads the team in runs scored with 31. … Harper belted her team-leading third triple of the season vs. Macalester last Wednesday. … Opsahl has recorded a team-best 12 multiple-hit and seven 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. … Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.) recorded her first collegiate four-hit game vs. Macalester Wednesday, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored in Game 1. … Katie Homan (North Mankato, Minn.) notched her first collegiate pitching win with a complete-game three-hitter in a 4-1 win over Misericordia on March 2 … 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 11 of their 17 wins. … The Cardinals' 18 runs in their 18-15 Game 1 win over Macalester last Wednesday were the most since plating 27 in a 27-0 rout of Mount Mary College on March 20, 2009. … The Cardinals' 11-run fourth inning was it highest single-inning output since plating 13 against Mount Mary College on March 20, 2009. … The Cardinals' 18 runs in their 18-15 Game 1 victory over Macalester last Wednesday marked the fourth time this season they have plated 10 or more runs. … Saint Mary's has outscored its opponents 22-6 in the second inning and 15-7 in the third. … The Cardinals own a pair of walk-off wins this season—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. … Fourteen of Saint Mary's 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 UW-Eau Claire Blugolds:
2015 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2015 Schedule
After going 5-9 in their first 14 games, the Blugolds are 19-5 in their last 24 contests. … With their wins over St. Scholastica and Northland, UW-Eau Claire pushed its winning streak to six straight. … The Blugolds have outscored their opponents 42-9 during their current six-game run—including three five-inning victories. … Amanda Fischer heads into her went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs in UW-EC's 13-0, five-inning win over St. Scholastica, while Leah Wolf was a perfect 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs in the Blugolds' 7-3 win over Northland. … Fischer heads into Monday's doubleheader against Saint Mary's leading the team in batting average at .439. Fischer is one of eight Blugolds hitting above .300 through 38 games. … Along with her team-best batting average, Fischer also leads the team in at-bats (123), runs (46), hits (54), triples (4), home runs (12), RBIs (44), total bases (102), slugging percentage (.829), and on-base percentage (.514). … Taylor Pierce has clubbed a team-high eight doubles, while Casey Arnold leads the Blugolds with 16 walks. … UW-Eau Claire has stolen 88 bases this season, led by Fischer with 26, and Rachel Heffel and Kenzie Winning with 14 each. … The Blugolds have used three pitchers this season, led by Lauren Blasczyk, who is 9-7 with a 2.08 ERA in 86.2 IP. Zana Lorbetske is 7-4 with a 2.67 ERA in a team-high 87.2 IP, while Laura Raflik ahs compiled a 5-3 record and a 3.61 ERA in 67.1 IP. … Lorbetske has tossed nine complete games, owns the team's lone save, and has struck out a team-leading 110 batters. … UW-Eau Claire has outscored its opponents in every inning but the fifth and eighth—including 44-11 in the second and 30-8 in the fourth. … The Blugolds are 18-2 when scoring six runs or more—including a perfect 8-0 when plating at least 10 runs. … UW-Eau Claire, which has scored first in 26 of its 38 games, is 21-1 when outhitting its opponents.