CLERMONT, Fla. — It wasn't quite the start to the day that Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller was hoping for.
 
And, unfortunately for Miller, then end of the day wasn't a whole lot better.
 
The Cardinals gave up seven runs in the first two innings—including a pair of home runs—and never recovered in dropping an 11-2, six-inning decision to Otterbein in their first game on Thursday.
 
And in the nightcap, Neumann got a one-out, pinch-hit RBI single from Julia Cox in the bottom of the eighth inning, lifting the Knights to a 7-6 victory over the Cardinals.
 
Otterbein—which handed the Cardinals a 5-4 setback in the teams' first meeting on Monday—came out swinging in the rematch, getting a two-run bomb from Raechel Owens in its first at-bat, while Courtney Hackney sparked a five-run second inning with a lead-off home run to push the lead to 7-0.
 
Both teams added runs in the fourth—Saint Mary's coming on an Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) RBI groundout—but Otterbein erupted for three sixth-inning runs to put the game out of reach.
 
Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) led the Cardinals' six-hit offensive attack, going 2-for-3, with Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.), Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.), Borawski, and Abbey Killian (Fountain City, Wis.) each collecting one hit.
 
In the nightcap, the Cardinals' got their offense clicking, breaking a scoreless deadlock with three runs in the top of the third inning. Haley Vanourney (Marion, Iowa) delivered a two-run triple and Opsahl chipped in a two-out single to give Saint Mary's a 3-0 advantage.
 
That three-run advantage did not last long, however, as Neumann answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. Saint Mary's plated two more runs in the top of the fourth—both coming on a Birkhauser double—only to have Neumann erupted for four fifth-inning runs to take its first lead of the game, 6-5.
 
Saint Mary's threatened to regain the lead in the top of the seventh, putting runner on first and second with one out. Borawski followed with a game-tying, RBI double, but the Cardinals stranded runners on second and third to send the game into extra innings.
 
Opsahl posted her first three-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4 to pace the Cardinals' 13-hit attack, while Birkhauser, Vanourney, and Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.) all chipped in two hits.
 
The Cardinals (2-6 overall) are off on Friday, before closing out their 10-game spring trip with contests against Penn State Brandywine (2 p.m. EST) and Mitchell (4:30 p.m.) on Saturday.