WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team entered Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Carleton in dire need of an offensive spark.
 
And the Cardinals found it—at the bottom of their batting order.
 
Hitting out of the No. 7 and No. 8 spots in the lineup, Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.) went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Tessa Kuschke (Grant, Minn.) launched her first collegiate—a two-run shot in the Cardinals' 5-run sixth—as the duo sparked Saint Mary's to a 7-2 win in Game 1 at the Saint Mary's Field.
 
Aldrich and Kuschke did their part in Game 2—Kuschke went 3-for-3 with an RBI and Aldrich scored a run—but this time around they had plenty of help.
 
Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) delivered three hits, drove in two runs and tossed a four-hitter in the pitcher's circle, while Stanzy Snyder (Johnston, Iowa) and Mariah Harper (Schaumburg, Ill.) each had two hits, as the Cardinals completed the sweep with an 8-0, five-inning victory.
 
Carleton got on the board first—scoring a single run in the top of the second—but the Cardinals answered right back in their half of the first, as Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.) belted a one-out double, and Aldrich delivered a two-out, run-scoring single to knot the game at 1-1.
 
The Knights threatened to break things open in the third, leading off with three straight singles to load the bases, but managed just a single run on a Molly Steinberg sacrifice fly to give Carleton its second one-run lead of the game, 2-1.
 
After squandering a one-out double by Snyder in the third, the Cardinals got the game-tying run in the fourth, loading the bases on an Opsahl single and back-to-back Carleton errors. Toni Hunsinger (Farmington, Minn.) followed with a two-out, infield single to score Opsahl.
 
And it was Opsahl who sparked the Cardinals' five-run sixth, as the junior led off the inning with a single, moved to third on Allie Borawski's (Stickney, Ill.) double, and both scored on Aldrich's single to right.
 
But the Cardinals' weren't done—far from it.
 
Kuschke followed Aldrich's two-run single with a two-run home run to left-center, and Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) tacked on another run with an RBI single, giving the Cardinals a commanding 7-2 lead.
 
The Cardinals banged out 13 hits in the opener, led by Opsahl with three hits and two-hit efforts from Aldrich, Snyder, and Hunsinger.
 
Betzold picked up the Game 1 pitching win, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out four, while Abbey Killian (Fountain City, Wis.) worked a perfect seventh.
 
The Cardinals took control early in the nightcap, scoring five times in the bottom of the second inning—highlighted by a two-run single by Snyder and RBI singles by Kuschke, Harper, and Betzold.
 
Snyder made it 6-0 in the third, inducing a bases-loaded walk, before driving in the Cardinals' seventh run in the bottom of the fifth with a double. Betzold then sealed the win with a two-out single to right to score Snyder with the game's final run.
 
Saint Mary's added 12, Game 2 hits—10 coming from the quartet of Betzold (3), Kuschke (3), Snyder (2), and Harper (2)—while Snyder drove in three runs and scored twice, and Kuschke had an RBI and two runs scored.
 
Betzold once again earned the pitching win, limiting Carleton to just four hits en route to her 14^th win of the season and her team-leading 16^th complete game—leaving the junior right-hander just one complete game shy of the school record of 52, held by Jenny Schipp.
 
The Cardinals (7-9 MIAC, 18-14 overall) are on the road this weekend, heading to St. Paul, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference showdown with Hamline on Saturday, before heading to Minneapolis, Minn., to take on Augsburg in a 1 p.m. MIAC twinbill on Sunday.