WINONA, Minn. —The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball had a flair for the dramatic—twice—in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader Augsburg Sunday afternoon.
 
The Cardinals scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning, then got a Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) single in the bottom of the 10^th inning to lift Saint Mary's to a 2-1 victory over the Auggies at Saint Mary's Field.
 
There would be no need for late-game heroics in the nightcap, as Saint Mary's scored all the runs it would need in the first inning, completing the conference sweep with a 3-1 victory.
 
Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.), one of four seniors playing their final home games in a Cardinal uniform, was her usual dominating self in the opener, limiting the high scoring Auggies—who entered Sunday's games have scored 10 or more runs in three of their last four games—to just a single, sixth-inning run.
 
Augsburg's Samantha Anderson was equally as dominant, blanking Saint Mary's through the first six innings—before the Cardinals' bats came to life in the seventh.
 
Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) reached on an Augsburg fielding error to open the seventh and was lifted for pinch runner Roni Stevens (Delano, Minn.). Haley Vanourney (Marion) failed twice to bunt Stevens to second, but, with two strikes, laced a double to left-center, and Stevens beat the throw to the plate to knot the game at 1-1—and send the game into extra innings.
 
Betzold limited the Auggies to just one hit over the eighth, ninth, and 10^th innings—setting the stage for Birkhauser's walk-off heroics in the bottom of the 10^th.
 
Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn.) began in the inning on second base, was sacrificed to third by Mia Lloyd (Minneapolis, Minn.), who was safe at first on an Augsburg error, and Birkhauser delivered an RBI single to center to clinch the win.
 
Vanourney collected two of Saint Mary's six hits, with Birkhauser, Lloyd, Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.), and Jordyn Keprios (Farmington, Minn.) collecting the other four.
 
Betzold went the distance in the pitcher's circle—recording her 19^th complete game of the season and her school-record 75^th career complete game. The senior right-hander allowed just the one, sixth-inning run on six hits, while striking out seven and walking two.
 
Saint Mary's wasn't about to wait until their final at-bat to get their offense on track in the nightcap, scoring three runs to grab a 3-0 advantage. Birkhauser opened the inning with a single, and Keprios followed with a walk. Betzold laced an RBI double to score Birkhauser, Opsahl delivered a run-scoring single to plate Keprios, and an Augsburg error allowed the third Cardinal run to score.
 
The Cardinals collected hits in the second, third, and fourth innings—Birkhauser leading off the second with a single, Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) doing the same in the third, and Birkhauser and Keprios singling in the fourth—but came up empty each time.
 
But with the one-two pitching punch of Betzold and Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.), those three first-inning runs were more than enough.
 
Betzold went the first four innings, blanking the Auggies on just two hits, while Trendle worked the final three innings—scattering three hits and an unearned seventh-inning run—en route to her first collegiate save.
 
Birkhauser led the Cardinals' seven-hit Game 2 attack, going 3-for-3 with a run scored, while Keprios, Betzold, Opsahl, and Borawski all had one hit each.
 
The Cardinals (4-13 MIAC, 10-23 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, heading to Northfield, Minn., for a 3:30 p.m. conference doubleheader against Carleton.