ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — There was one thing Saint Mary's University head coach
Sam Borawski was well aware of heading into their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Saint Benedict Wednesday — the Bennies' boasted an explosive 1-2 combination.
And while Cardinal pitchers
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.) and
Cassie Sutor (Chicago, Ill.) embraced the Herculean task of silencing the explosive Bennie bats — Saint Mary's could not solve CSB's stingy pitchers.
Chow and the Cardinals limited Saint Benedict — which entered the matchup having outscored its opponents 84-4 during its current eight-game winning streak — to just three runs in the opener, but Saint Mary's could only manage four singles in falling to the Bennies 3-0.
And it was more of the same in the nightcap, as Sutor tossed a complete-game six-hitter — allowing just a lone, fourth-inning run — only to have CSB counterpart Ally Hjort toss the Bennies' ninth shutout in their last 10 games in blanking Saint Mary's 1-0.
Saint Mary's had a golden opportunity to strike first in Game 1 — getting one-out singles
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.) and
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.) in the third — but CSB pitcher Elly Novak wiggled out of the jam, inducing a ground and a pop-out to end the Cardinal threat.
Saint Benedict put an end to the scoreless duel in the bottom of the fifth. Bryn Carlstom laced a one-out double and Sheridan Glashan followed with an RBI single — accounting for two of the four Bennie hits off Chow through the first five innings.
And then came the sixth — and the Bennies' bats came to life.
Chow got the first batter to ground out, but Katie Carlson followed with a double, Jordyn Swoboda delivered an RBI single, and Lexi Hanson doubled to give Novak and the Bennies' all the offense they would need.
Jordan Meyers (Eyota, Minn.) and
Lizzy Baird (Wells, Minn.) joined Schultz and Gudmundson as the only Cardinals to get a hit off Novak, who did not walk a batter and struck out eight in posting her 16th win of the year. Chow suffered the pitching loss, despite holding the high-powered CSB offense to just three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.
The Cardinals once again had an early opportunity to get out in front of the Bennies in the nightcap.
Erin Sullivan (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) reached on an error to open the second inning and Sutor followed with a walk. But, like Novak in Game 1, CSB pitcher Ally Hjort worked out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a fielder's choice groundout.
CSB grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, loading the bases with one out, before Burns drove in the game's first run on a fielder's choice groundout to second.
Saint Mary's again threatened in the fifth, as singles by
Haley Williams (Littleton, Colo.) and Meyers, and a Meyers stolen base, put runners on second and third. Houdini Hjort, however, got an inning-ending groundout to escape the inning with that 1-0 advantage still intact.
Williams, Sullivan, Meyers, and
Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.) had the Cardinals' four Game 2 hits, while Sutor's final line included one run on six hits with four walks and four strikeouts.
The Cardinals (5-13 MIAC, 8-22 overall) are back on the road on Saturday, heading to Concordia's Jake Christiansen Stadium in Moorhead, Minn., for a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader against the Cobbers.
