ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team came out swinging in Game 1 of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Bethel Tuesday afternoon.
In fact, Saint Mary's scored a run on two hits in their very first at-bat.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that first-inning run was all the offense they would muster—until the seventh inning of Game 2, when
Alexa Diteman (Burnsville, Minn.) belted her first collegiate home run—as Bethel handed Saint Mary's 4-1 and 7-0 conference setbacks at Ona Orth Athletic Complex.
The Cardinals got off to a quick start in the opener, as
Stanzy Snyder (Johnston, Iowa) led off the game with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.), and scored on
Brittney Birkhauser's (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) RBI double.
Bethel pulled even with a solo run of its own in the third—also on a run-scoring double—and the game would remain deadlocked until the sixth, when the Royals iced the win by parlaying five hits into three runs for the 4-1 advantage.
Snyder, Birkhauser,
Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.), and
Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) accounted for the Cardinals' four hits off Bethel starter Lindsay Edeen, who walked one and struck out six in recording the complete-game win.
Betzold suffered the pitching loss in the opener, limiting the Royals to just the one run on five hits over the first five innings, before Bethel got to the Cardinal junior for three runs on five hits in its final at-bat.
The Royals carried their sixth-inning Game 1 momentum right into the nightcap, scoring once in the first inning and three more times in the second to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Bethel would add two more runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to seal the win—and complete the sweep.
Birkhauser collected two of the Cardinals' seven hits in the nightcap, going 2-for-3, while Diteman, Harper, Betzold, Borawski, and
Mia Lloyd (Minneapolis, Minn.) each finished with one hit.
The Cardinals (5-9 MIAC, 16-14 overall) are right back in action on Wednesday, hosting Carleton in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader at the Saint Mary's Field.
