By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — It wasn't quite the start the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team was looking for.
 
With their offense stuck in April hibernation, the Cardinals were in dire need of an offense jump-start in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline.
 
Unfortunately, it was more of the same old, same old — for both the Cardinals and the Pipers in the opener at the Saint Mary's Field.
 
Saint Mary's could not get its offense shifted out of neutral — failing to score more than two runs for the fifth straight game — while Hamline plated five runs for the third consecutive contest in dealing the Cardinals a 5-0 Game 1 setback at the Saint Mary's Field.
 
The Cardinals ended their scoreless drought in their first at-bat of the nightcap, scoring twice — including the first collegiate home run, on the first pitch of the inning, by Hallie Schmeling (Onalaska, Wis.)
 
Unfortunately, but the time the Cardinals would score again — in the bottom of the seventh — Hamline had already posted a pair of three-run innings, as the Pipers completed the conference sweep with a 6-3 victory.
 
Hamline scored all the runs it would need in the opener in the first inning, scoring a solo run on an RBI single by Riley Husom. The Pipers would tack on two more runs in the third, one in the fourth and another in the seventh en route to the 5-0 victory.
 
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.) went 2-for-3 in the opener, while Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.), DeJaye Baab (Wabasha, Minn.), and Roni Stevens (Delano, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' other three hits.
 
The Pipers picked up right where they left off in the nightcap, scoring three times in the top of the first.
 
This time around, however, the Cardinals had an answer, as Schmeling belted Kat Armstrong's first offering over the fence in center field for her first collegiate round-tripper. Stevens followed with a single, moved to second on a Chow groundout and scored on Amber Trendle's (Chicago, Ill.) run-scoring single to left.
 
Hamline posted its second three-run inning of the game in the third to push its lead to 6-2 — and it would remain that way until the seventh, when Stevens delivered a two-out RBI single.
 
Stevens led the Cardinals' eight-hit Game 2 attack, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Schmeling finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Schultz, Trendle, and Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.) all had one hit.
 
The Cardinals (1-7 MIAC, 5-17 overall) are right back in action on Sunday, heading to Macalester Stadium in St. Paul, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against the Scots.