WINONA, Minn. — With a steady wind howling at 35+ mph throughout the day, it was almost fitting that the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team was facing the Gusties Sunday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Field.
 
And the Cardinals felt Gustavus' bluster in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, managing just two runs on six hits in falling to the Gusties 9-2.
 
Fortunately for coach John Tschida, the Cardinals took the wind out of the Gusties' sails in the nightcap, putting together three innings of three or more runs in earning the conference split with an 11-9 victory.
 
With the split, the Cardinals — who close out conference play next Sunday at third-place Saint Benedict — kept their hopes of an invitation to the six-team MIAC Playoffs alive. SMU is current fifth in the league in wins with nine, one more than Macalester and two in front of both Hamline and Gustavus heading into the final week of regular-season play.
 
GAME 1: GUSTIES PULL AWAY LATE
 
Gustavus jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead against Saint Mary's starter Sarah Kraus (Onalaska, Wis.), who was making her third appearance in the circle in less than 24 hours — tossing 14 innings in SMU's sweep of Augsburg on Saturday.
 
Saint Mary's cut the GAC lead in half in the bottom of the first inning, getting a lead-off double by Allison Ciero (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and a single by Sophie Cave (Maplewood, Minn.) to put runners on the corners. A fielding error on a groundball by Riley Hall (Dallas Center, Iowa) plated Ciero and made it a 2-1 lead.
 
The Gusties picked up right where they left off in the second inning, getting a two-out, RBI single from Rachel Kawiecki to regain their two-run advantage, 3-1. Saint Mary's, meanwhile, failed to manufacture a run against GAC starter Piper Otto over the next three innings.
 
In the fifth, however, Saint Mary's offense came to life, thanks to a clutch, pinch-hit single by Emma Kral (Emmetsburg, Iowa). Kral laced an Otto offering into center to score Kraus — who had walked, moved to second on a passed ball, and was sacrificed to third — to pull SMU within one, 3-2.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that one-run deficit quickly ballooned to seven, as Gustavus answered Saint Mary's one-run fifth with two runs in the sixth and four more in the seventh to seal the Game 1 victory.
 
Cave finished 2-for-3, while Ciero, Kral, Cassie Sutor (Chicago, Ill.), and Mackenzie Carey (Prescott, Wis.) had SMU's other three hits.
 
GAME 2: TURNING UP THE OFFENSIVE HEAT
 
Game 2 had a much more favorable start for the Cardinals, who scored more runs in the first inning than they had in the entire first game.
 
Saint Mary's loaded the bases in the first with no one out on a lead-off single by Ciero and back-to-back walks to Cave and Hall. Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) delivered a two-run single to center to score both Ciero and Cave, and Amy Kulaga (Riverside, Ill.) followed with a one-out RBI single to give SMU an early 3-0 cushion.
 
The Cardinals added to their lead in the second, scoring once on a Gustie fielding error and getting another on a run-scoring single by Hall. Nordlund picked up her third RBI of the game with a single to right, as SMU completed its second three-run inning to double their lead to 6-0.
 
It took the Cardinals two inning to build their six-run advantage, but it took the Gusties just one inning to trim that advantage to one, scoring five runs on four hits — while taking advantage of a pair of SMU third-inning errors — to make it a one-run game, 6-5.
 
After surrendering the game-tying run in the top of the fourth, the Cardinals regained the advantage in the bottom of the frame. Cave led off the inning with a double and Nordlund walked. One out later, Erin Sullivan (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) drilled a single to center to plate Cave, and a Gustie fielding error allowed Nordlund to score.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
 
With the bases loaded, Kral — pinch-hitting for the second straight game — was hit by a pitch to score SMU's third run of the inning, and GAC's second error of the inning pushed across the Cardinals' fourth run of the inning to make it a 10-6 Saint Mary's lead.
 
Saint Mary's tacked on its fifth unanswered run — a Sullivan one-out double in the bottom of the fifth — to pad its lead to 11-6, only to have Gustavus score twice in the top of the sixth to whittle the lead back down to three, 11-8.
 
Gustavus threatened in the top of the seventh, scoring an unearned run and having the tying run at the plate, but Kraus — on in relief of starter Ally Wagner (Altoona, Wis.) in the sixth — got GAC's Kayla Ruud to pop out to Cave at short to ice the SMU victory.
 
Hall, Nordlund, Sullivan, and Kulaga all finished the nightcap with two hits, while Nordlund drove in three runs and Sullivan had two RBIs. Wagner picked up the pitching win, allowing six runs — only two of which were earned — on seven hits, while striking out five.
 
The Cardinals (9-10 MIAC, 16-14 overall) step out of conference play on Tuesday, heading to La Crosse, Wis., for a 2:30 p.m. nonconference doubleheader against UW-La Crosse.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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