By
ALEX NUEHRING
Saint Mary's Sports Information Intern
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University softball team was finally able to play a home doubleheader—after playing their past several "home" games inside at the Rochester Regional Stadium in Rochester, Minn.
Unfortunately, even the home-field advantage could not help Saint Mary's slow down red-hot St. Catherine, as the Wildcats handed the Cardinals a pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference losses, 6-1 and 6-4, at the Saint Mary's Field.
St. Catherine got things rolling in its first at-bat in the opener, plating a single run, only to have Saint Mary's answer with a run of its own in its half of the first.
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.) led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a groundout by
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.). Brittany Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) then put the Cardinals on the board with a RBI single.
The Wildcats, however, weren't about to slow down, scoring a pair of runs in the second inning and added another in the third to push their lead to 4-1, and closed out the scoring in the sixth plating two more runs.
Schultz, Birkhauser,
Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.), and
Jordyn Keprios (Farmington, Minn.) picked up the Cardinals' four hits in the opener.
Game 2 opened in much the same fashion as the opener—times two.
St. Catherine's jumped out to a short-lived 2-0 lead with two runs in the top of the first, only to have Saint Mary's again answer, scoring twice in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 2-2.
Schultz continued her success in the lead-off position with a double to jump-start the Saint Mary's first. After a walk by Birkhauser, Vesel scored Schultz with a single. Birkhauser moved to third and Vesel to second on a
Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.) groundout, and Birkhauser would score the Cardinals' second run of the inning on a passed ball.
Saint Mary's put together its second-straight two-run inning in the second, thanks to a two-run double by Birkhauser that scored Hallie Schmelling (Onalaska, Wis.) and
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.).
After three straight scoreless innings, the Wildcats finally got to Cardinal starter
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.), scoring a solo run in the fifth to cut the Saint Mary's lead to 4-3, before erupting for three runs in the sixth to take the lead for good, 6-4.
Schultz and Aldrich each delivered two hits to pace the Cardinals' eight-hit Game 2 attack, while Gudmundson, Birkhauser, Vesel, and Chow accounted for the other four hits.
The Cardinals (5-9 MIAC, 11-19 overall) step out of conference play on Tuesday, traveling to Eau Claire, Wis., for a 4 p.m. nonconference doubleheader against UW-Eau Claire.
