By
Donny Nadeau
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
ST. PETER, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team was limited to just four runs in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Gustavus Thursday afternoon.
Fortunately for coach
Jen Miller, three of those four runs came in Game 1—and helped Saint Mary's to a conference split.
The Cardinals scored single runs in the first, fifth, and seventh innings—and got a complete-game pitching performance from
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.)—en route to a 3-1 win in the opener.
In the nightcap, however, Saint Mary's was limited to just three hits—and a lone, fifth-inning run—as Gustavus dealt the Cardinals a 2-1 setback.
Saint Mary's scored in its first at-bat in the opener—thanks to a
Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.) two-out single—and padded that lead to 2-0 on an
Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) double in the top of the fifth. Gustavus cut the deficit to 2-1 with a run of its own in the bottom of the fifth, but the Cardinals walked their way to a run in the seventh to seal the victory.
Saint Mary's loaded bases in the seventh, sandwiching two-out walks to
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.) and
Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) around a single by
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.), and the Cardinals' third walk of the inning—this one to Vesel pushed the Saint Mary's lead to 3-1.
Gudmundson led the Cardinals' seven-hit offensive attack in Game 1, going 2-for-4, while Schultz, Vesel, Borawski,
Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.), and
Haley Vanourney (Marion, Iowa) all had one hit.
Chow picked up the pitching win, tossing her team-leading 11
th complete game. The freshman scattered seven hits, allowing just the lone fifth-inning run, while striking out two.
It was the Gusties who struck for the game's first two runs in the nightcap, plating a solo run in the first and another in the fourth, before the Cardinals finally got on the board in the fifth—when Aldrich open the inning with a double and pinch-runner
Roni Stevens (Delano, Minn.) moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch to cut the gap to 2-1.
The Cardinals threatened in sixth when
Jordyn Keprios (Farmington, Minn.) reached on an error, but was stranded there. And in the seventh, Aldrich laced a one-out double—her second of the game—but again, was left stranded.
Aldrich had a pair of hits and Vesel collected the other in Game 2, while
Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) was the tough-luck loser in the pitcher's circle, allowing just two runs, one earned, on five hits.
The Cardinals (6-10 MIAC, 13-21 overall) return to conference play on Saturday, hosting Concordia in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at the Saint Mary's Field.
