By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
CLERMONT, Fla. — After failing to plate a run in their first game of the season, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team turned up the offensive heat in their second game of the day Sunday.
 
The Cardinals, coming off a 1-0, season-opening loss to Aurora, erupted for three runs in the third inning and five more in the fourth, rallying from a 5-1 deficit to beat Bluffton 9-5 in the teams' first-ever meeting.
 
Saint Mary's spotted Bluffton a 5-1 lead — giving up three runs in the first and two more in the top of the third — before the Cardinals turned their bats loose on the Beaver pitching staff.
 
Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.) — who scored Saint Mary's first run in the second inning on a Marissa Kleckler ground out — drove in one of the Cardinals' three third-inning runs with a single, while Kulaga and Tara Nikolich (Chicago, Ill.) both scored on a fielding error by Bluffton shortstop Caylin Morstadt to cut deficit to one, 5-4.
 
Halle Schmeling (Onalaska, Wis.) kicked off Saint Mary's five-run fourth with an RBI single and eventually scored on a passed ball. Erin Sullivan (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) plated the Cardinals' third run with a sacrifice fly and a Heidi Stewart (Burnsville, Minn.) RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.) rounded out the scoring.
 
Kulaga and Schmeling were unstoppable at the top of the Cardinal lineup, with Kulaga going 3-for-3 with two runs scored from the lead-off spot, while Schmeling went 3-for-4 with a pair of run scored batting behind her.
 
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.) picked up the pitching win, throwing 6.1 innings of relief, allowing two runs on five hits, while striking out eight and walking one.
 
In their first game of the day, Haley Williams (Littleton, Colo.) finished as the team's offensive leader, collecting two of the Cardinals' four hits, while Chow went the distance in the pitcher's circle, allowing just one run and striking out four.
 
The Spartans, who rode the four-hit, 12-strikeout performance of pitcher Hannah Tomasko,  plated the game's only run in the bottom of the fifth.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are back in action in Clermont, Fla., on Monday, when they square off against Regis (10 a.m. EST) and Widener (12:15 p.m. EST).