By Donny Nadeau
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ROCHESTER, Minn. — They played seven innings—but the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and Macalester fastpitch softball teams only needed one inning to score all five runs in Game 1 of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader Thursday afternoon at the RCTC Dome.
 
Macalester scored its lone run in the top of the fourth inning and Saint Mary's answered with a pair of back-to-back two-run doubles in the bottom of the frame, as Saint Mary's opened the twinbill with a streak-snapping 4-1 victory.
 
The Cardinals needed two innings to score another four runs in the nightcap, using two-run efforts in the first and third innings to complete the sweep with a 4-2 victory.
 
The Cardinals and Scots both had plenty of scoring chances early in Game 1, but the Scots stranded five runners on base in the opening three innings, while Saint Mary's left six runners on base—two in each of the first three frames.
 
And then came the fourth.
 
Macalester tagged Saint Mary's starting pitcher Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) for three hits in the top of the fourth—including an RBI single by Kennedy Kechely—to give the Scots a 1-0 advantage.
 
An advantage that did not last long.
 
The Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs, and Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) and Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.) came through in the clutch, delivering back-to-back two-run doubles to give the Cardinals the lead for good, 4-1.
 
Macalester threatened in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs, but Trendle induced Sophie Migacz to fly out to left to end the threat, then retired the Scots in order in the seventh to seal the victory.
 
Vesel and Nikolich led the way for the Cardinals in the Game 1 win, collecting two hits each, with Birkhauser, Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.), Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.), Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.), Haley Williams (Littleton, Colo.), and Hallie Schmeling (Onalaska, Wis.) all chipping in one hit.
 
Trendle went the distance in the pitcher's circle, allowing just one run on 10 hits, while walking two and striking out two in evening her record at 5-5.
 
Vesel and the Cardinals picked up right where they left off in the nightcap, as the Cardinal freshman laced a run-scoring single in the first inning and Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) drove in another first-inning run as Saint Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
 
Vesel picked up her second hit of the nightcap—and drove in her fourth and fifth runs of the doubleheader—to push the Cardinal lead to 4-0 in the third.
 
Macalester broke up Cardinal pitcher Amber Chow's (West St. Paul, Minn.) shutout bid with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth, but that was all the Scots would manage off the freshman right-hander, who finished with a complete-game eight-hitter.
 
Vesel posted her second two-hit game of the afternoon and Birkhauser and Borawski also belted a pair of hits to pace the Cardinals' eight-hit Game 2 offensive attack.
 
The Cardinals (4-4 MIAC, 10-14 overall) return to action with a pair of conference doubleheaders this weekend—both at the RCTC Dome. Saint Mary's will square off against Bethel in a 1 p.m. matchup on Saturday, before facing Saint Benedict, also at 1 p.m., the following afternoon.