By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
CLERMONT, Fla. — After surrendering 14 runs in their first two spring trip games on Sunday, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team got down-right defensive when they took the field Monday morning against Rose-Hulman.
The Cardinals simply hopped on the right-arm of senior pitcher
Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) and rode it to a 1-0 nonconference win over Rose-Hulman.
Saint Mary's second game of the day proved to be another one-run nailbiter.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, this time the end result did not go in their favor, as Augustana (Ill.) dealt Saint Mary's a 5-4 setback.
Trendle was virtually unhittable in the opener, limiting the Fightin' Engineers to just two hits — both coming in the sixth inning — en route to her second collegiate shutout. The senior right-hander carried a no-hitter into the sixth, when Rose-Hulman collected a pair of singles in through their first three batters of the inning. A pop-out to second and a foul-out to the catcher, however, foiled the Fightin' Engineers' threat.
Saint Mary's would score the only run of the game in the third. After loading the bases with no one out,
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.) lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring
Roni Stevens (Delano, Minn.), who opened the inning with an infield single.
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.) went 2-for-3 to pace the Cardinals' five hit offensive attack, while Schultz, Stevens, and
Hallie Schmeling (Onalaska, Wis.) accounted for Saint Mary's other three hits off Rose-Hulman pitcher Emily Struble.
The Cardinals spotted Augustana a two-run first-inning lead to kick off their second game of the day. Saint Mary's cut the deficit to one, 2-1, on an RBI single by Chow in the top of the third, but gave that run back in the Vikings' half of the third.
Augustana added single runs in the fourth and fifth to push its lead to 5-1.
Saint Mary's took advantage of a Viking fielding error to score three unearned runs in the top of the seventh — highlighted by a bases-loaded walk to Kulaga and an RBI single by Stevens — but could not plate the equalizer in dropping its overall record to 2-2.
For the second game in a row, the Cardinals finished with five hits — coming from five different players — against the Vikings. Chow finished 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, with Schmeling,
Tara Nikolich (Chicago, Ill.), and
DeJaye Baab (Wabasha, Minn.) collecting Saint Mary's other four hits.
Chow went the distance in the pitcher's circle, allowing five runs on seven hits, with three walks and a pair of strikeouts.
The Cardinals are off on Tuesday, and return to action on Wednesday, squaring off against Hanover (9:30 a.m. EST) and Milwaukee School of Engineering (11:45 a.m. EST).
