By Donny Nadeau
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — After managing just three runs in a pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference losses to Concordia on Saturday, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team's offense came to life in a big way against Bethel Sunday.
 
A very big way.
 
The Cardinals erupted for nine runs on 17 hits, their highest offensive output in 24 games—and they needed every one of those nine runs in beating the Royals 9-8 in the first game of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Ona Orth Athletic Complex.
 
The hits—and the runs—continued to pile up in the nightcap.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was Bethel doing the brunt of the scoring, as the Royals erupted for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for a 9-6 victory and a split in the teams' conference twinbill.
 
The Cardinals took advantage of three Bethel errors in scoring a trio of unearned runs in the top of the first inning, but the lead did not even last three outs, as Bethel answered with a four-run outburst in their first at-bat to grab a 4-3 advantage.
 
Again, an advantage that did not even survive an inning.
 
The Cardinals put up their second straight three-run inning in the second—highlighted by RBI singles from Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.) and Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.)—to regain the lead, 6-4.
 
And the offensive fireworks were just beginning, as Bethel plated three runs in the fourth for a short-lived 7-6 lead—a lead that Saint Mary's stole back thanks to run-scoring singles from Vesel and Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.) in the fifth.
 
Bethel knotted the game at 8-8 with a solo run in the sixth, but the Cardinals once again had an answer—this one off the bat of Aldrich—who laced what proved to be the game-winning single to give Saint Mary's the lead for good.
 
Vesel and Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) each delivered four hits to pace the Cardinals' 17-hit attack, while Aldrich and Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.) each chipped in three hits.
 
The break between games did nothing to cool off the Cardinals bats, as Saint Mary's erupted for four runs in the top of the first inning—including RBI singles by Aldrich and Borawski and a two-run single by Haley Williams (Littleton, Colo.).
 
This time around, the Cardinals were able to hang on to the lead—for two-and-a-half innings, anyway.
 
Bethel, which managed just one hit in its first two at-bats, tagged Cardinal starter Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) for five runs on six hits in the third inning to give the Royals a 5-4 lead.
 
As had been their modus operandi all afternoon, the Royals were once again unable to maintain the lead, as Saint Mary's answered BU's five-run third with a pair of runs in the fourth to regain the lead 6-5.
 
The Royals then took a page out of the Cardinals' come-from-behind playbook, scoring four times on three hits to take the lead for good, 9-6, in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Aldrich had another big game at the plate, following up her three-hit performance in Game 1 with two more hits in three at-bats, while also driving in a pair of runs in the nightcap. Birkhauser, Borawski, Williams, and Justin Schultz (Winona, Minn.) had the Cardinals' other four Game 2 hits.
 
Saint Mary's (7-13 MIAC, 14-24 overall) closes out the regular season on Monday, hosting Saint Benedict in a pair of conference games. Opening pitch at Saint Mary's Field is slated for 3:30 p.m.