By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team took far different approaches to the two games of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Concordia Saturday.
The Cardinals walked their way to both of their Game 1 runs, drawing a pair of bases-loaded, two-out walks in the top of the fifth inning, only to have the Cobbers flex their offensive muscles, breaking a 2-2 deadlock with two swings of the bat in the bottom of the sixth — the first a lead-off home run and the second a one-out RBI single — to lift Concordia to a 4-2 victory.
In Game 2, to say the Saint Mary's bats came to life would be an understatement. The Cardinals scored 11 times — three in the first and eight more in the second — as Saint Mary's walked away with a lopsided, 14-0 victory, and a split in their final road doubleheader of the season.
The first inning of the opening game must have given Cardinal head coach
Jen Miller a severe case of déjà vu.
And that wasn't a good thing.
After stranding 17 runners on base in their doubleheader split against Augsburg Wednesday — including leaving the bases loaded three times — the Cardinals were at it again against the Cobbers, loading the bases in their very first at-bat, only to come up empty.
The Cobbers, meanwhile, took advantage of a lead-off double by Maria Pake and a Cardinal error to score once in the bottom of the first to grab the early 1-0 lead.
Concordia padded its lead to 2-0 with its second unearned run of the game in the bottom of the third, before the Cardinals finally broke through in the fifth — without the benefit of a hit.
The Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs — thanks to a pair of hit batters sandwiched around a fielder's choice groundout.
Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) plated the Cardinals' first run with a two-out walk, and
Maria Averbeck (Lewiston, Minn.) followed with Saint Mary's second straight bases-loaded free pass to knot the game at 2-2.
Unfortunately, the deadlock did not last long, as Taylor Erholtz led off the Cobber half of the sixth with a home run to left-center, and Madison Kostelecky would add a one-out RBI single to give Concordia the lead for good, 4-2.
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.),
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.), and
Haley Williams (Littleton, Colo.) recorded the Cardinals' three Game 1 hits, with Trendle and Averbeck picking up Saint Mary's two RBIs.
The Cardinals came out swinging in the nightcap, erupting for three first-inning runs.
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.) kicked things off with a lead-off single, moved to third on
Hallie Schmeling's (Onalaska, Wis.) double, and scored on a single by Schultz. Averbeck walked to load the bases and Trendle lifted a sacrifice fly to right to plate the Cardinals' second run.
Roni Stevens (Delano, Minn.) completed the Cardinals' first-inning trifecta with a two-out single to score Schultz — and give Saint Mary's a 3-0 advantage.
Saint Mary's picked up right where it left off in the second inning, getting back-to-back singles from Gudmundson and Schmeling, and a one-out walk to Averbeck to load the bases. And, just like in the first inning, the Cardinals got the clutch hit — again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Trendle,
Tara Nikolich (Chicago, Ill.),
Erin Sullivan (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.), Williams, and
Marissa Kleckler (Oregon, Wis.) all delivered RBI singles to make it an 8-0 Saint Mary's lead.
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
Gudmundson recorded her second hit of the inning — a two-run double — and Schmeling drove in the eighth run of the inning with a groundout to push the Cardinals' lead to 11-0.
After a quiet third inning, the Cardinals went back to work in the fourth, as Averbeck delivered a two-out, run-scoring double and Trendle followed with a two-run single to left to make it 14-0.
Gudmundson finished Game 2 a perfect 3-for-3, with a double, two runs scored and a pair of RBIs, while Nikolich Trendle, Sullivan, and Schmeling all finished with two hits. Every Cardinal starter had a least one hit in the 19-hit attack — the most hits in a game since banging out 20 against Ohio Northern on March 4, 2014. The Cardinals' 14 runs were also a season high — and the most since plating 17 against Lyndon State on Feb. 24, 2016.
The Cardinals (5-15 MIAC, 9-25 overall) close out the regular season — and bid farewell to their three graduating seniors — on Sunday, hosting Bethel in a pair of conference games at the Saint Mary's Field. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
