DULUTH, Minn. — After being held without a run in dropping a pair of conference games to No. 14 Bethel on Tuesday, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team turned up the offensive heat two days later against St. Scholastica.
 
Saint Mary's erupted for a combined 20 runs in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against the Saints.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, plating 20 runs was only good enough for a split.
 
St. Scholastica scored at least two runs in every inning but the third — including back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth that erased a 9-8 Saint Mary's lead — as the Saints opened the afternoon with a 14-10 victory.
 
Saint Mary's raced out to a 10-3 lead in the nightcap, and survived another late-game Saints' rally to earn a 10-7 victory — and the conference split.
 
GAME 1: RUNS A PLENTY
 
The Cardinals and Saints set the tone early in the opener, combining for 10 runs over the first two innings. SMU got on the board first on an RBI groundout by Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.), only to have CSS answer with four runs in its half of the first.
 
Saint Mary's knotted the game at 4-4 in the top of the second — scoring three runs on two hits, while also taking advantage of three Saints' errors. For the second inning in a row, however, the Saints would answer, getting a pair of runs in their second at-bat for a 6-4 lead.
 
St. Scholastica pushed its lead to 8-4 with two runs in the fourth, only to have Saint Mary's put together a five-run, six-hit fifth — highlighted by an RBI double from Erin Sullivan (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.), an RBI single from Cassie Sutor (Chicago, Ill.), and a two-run triple off the bat of Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.) — to regain the lead, 9-8.
 
The Saints once again responded to the Cardinals' offensive outburst, scoring three times in the fifth and three times in the sixth to ice the victory.
 
Sophie Cave (Maplewood, Minn.) and Mackenzie Carey (Prescott, Wis.) led the Cardinals' 13-hit Game 1 attack, both going 3-for-4, while Riley Hall (Dallas Center, Iowa) and Kulaga both chipped in two hits.
 
GAME 2: 10 IS ENOUGH THIS TIME
 
The Cardinals picked up right where they left off in the second game, scoring the game's first three runs — twice in the first on RBIs by Hall and Nordlund and once in the third on a run-scoring single by Cave.
 
After St. Scholastica pulled even with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, Saint Mary's took the lead for good, scoring three times in the fifth — highlighted by a two-run home run off the bat of Cave — before adding four more runs in the sixth, thanks to three, bases-loaded walks and a sacrifice fly by Cave.
 
St. Scholastica made things interesting, scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth and twice more in the seventh to whittle the SMU lead to three, 10-7, but the Saints would get no closer.
 
Cave and Amelia Spilde (Brooklyn, Wis.) each had two hits in the nightcap, with Cave also scoring twice and driving in four runs. Spilde also picked up the pitching win, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, while striking out two.
 
The Cardinals (6-9 MIAC, 13-13 overall) are right back in action this weekend, hosting ga pair of conference games at the Saint Mary's Field. SMU will face Augsburg at 1 p.m. on Saturday, before entertaining Gustavus in a 1 p.m. doubleheader the following afternoon.
  Read Full Article