By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
CLERMONT, Fla. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team certainly had a flair for the dramatic in their season-opening nonconference showdown against Alma Sunday afternoon.
 
The Cardinals scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning — including two on a double by Hallie Schmeling (Onalaska, Wis.) and the game-winner on a throwing error — to rally for a 10-9 victory over the Scots.
 
The Cardinals could have used some more late-inning heroics in their second game of the afternoon, as Neumann scored five unanswered runs, erasing a 2-0 Saint Mary's lead and dealing SMU a 5-2 setback.
 
Saint Mary's did not waste any time getting its offense cranked up against Alma, scoring three times in the bottom of the second inning — scoring a pair of unearned runs and another on a bases loaded walk to Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.).
 
Alma quickly answered, scoring four times in the top of the third and twice more in the top of the fourth to grab a 6-3 lead. Saint Mary's got one run back on a run-scoring double by Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.), but the Scots delivered single runs in both the fifth and six to push their lead to 8-4.
 
Schmeling laced a two-run triple in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 8-6, and, after Alma plated another run in the top of the seventh, Schmeling was at it again — hammering a bases-loaded, two-run double, with Kulaga then scoring the game-winning run on a Scots' throwing error.
 
Schmeling highlighted the Cardinals' eight-hit attack, going 2-for-4 with a double, triple and five RBIs, while Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.) and Tara Nikolich (Chicago, Ill.) also banged out a pair of hits, with Nikolich, Kulaga, and Roni Stevens all scoring twice.
 
Chow went the first six innings in the pitcher's circle, scattering nine runs on nine hits, while Signey Stoesz (Mountain Lake, Minn.) earned the pitching win, surrendering one hit in relief in the seventh.
 
The Cardinals once again jumped out to the early lead in their second game of the day against Neumann, scoring a pair of unearned runs on back-to-back Knights' throwing errors in the top of the second inning.
 
Neumann answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the second, and took a 4-2 advantage in the fourth — stringing together four straight one-out singles off Cardinal starter Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.).
 
The Knights added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth and the Cardinals were unable to mount a late-game comeback.
 
Nikolich and Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.) each had two hits to account for four of the Cardinals' seven hits off Neumann starter Jen Sieminski, while Trendle was tagged with the pitching loss, allowing five runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings of work.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are back in action on Monday, squaring off against Rose-Hulman (9:30 a.m. EST) and Augustana (11:45 EST).