MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — To say that the Saint Mary's fastpitch softball team is hot would be a bit of an understatement.
 
The Cardinals, playing their third doubleheader in the last four days, showed no signs of fatigue — and no signs of slowing down — against Macalester Sunday afternoon.
 
Saint Mary's feasted on Macalester pitching, scoring 14 runs in extending its winning streak to six straight with 9-6 and 5-2 victories over the Scots at the Augsburg Dome.
 
GAME 1: OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION
Saint Mary's wasted no time picking up where they left off in sweeping past St. Scholastica 8-0 and 8-0 on Friday, scoring twice in their first at-bat. Abbie Stigler (Menomonie, Wis.) kicked things off with a one-out walk and promptly stole second. After moving to third on a Riley Hall (Dallas Center, Iowa) groundout, Stigler trotted home when Peyton Berg launched her first collegiate home run to give SMU an early 2-0 advantage.
 
Stigler jump-started the Cardinal offense again in the third, leading off with a single and moving to second when Hall reached on a Scot fielding error. Berg drove home SMU's first run of the inning with an RBI single, Heather Nordlund followed with a run-scoring double, and Naleya Bork (Fond du Lac, Wis.) added a sacrifice fly to extend the Cardinals' lead to 5-0.
 
Macalester foiled Cardinal pitcher Sarah Kraus's (Onalaska, Wis.) bid for a third straight shutout in the fourth, tagging the SMU right-hander for one run on two hits, but Saint Mary's answered with a solo run of its own in the bottom of the frame — thanks to an RBI infield single by Hall — to make it 6-1.
 
The Scots made things interesting in the fifth, parlaying four hits and a Saint Mary's error into four runs — cutting that five-run cushion to just one, 6-5. The Cardinals, however, took advantage of a Scot fielding error in the bottom of the fifth, plating a pair of unearned runs to give themselves a little breathing room at 8-5.
 
The two teams traded sixth-inning runs, the Cardinals coming on their second home run of the contest — a lead-off blast by Hall — and Kraus wiggled out of a second-and-third, no-out jam with a pair of ground-outs and a strikeout to seal the 9-6 SMU victory.
 
Hall, Berg, and Emily Bonk (Hudson, Wis.) all collected two hits to lead SMU's nine-hit Game 1 attack, while Hall, Berg, and Stigler each scored twice, and Berg drove in a team-leading three runs. Krause picked up her third straight pitching win, allowing just two earned runs, while walking one and striking out two.
 
GAME 2: COMPLETING WHAT THEY STARTED
Macalester swiped a page out of the Cardinals' playbook, opening the second game in much the same fashion SMU opened the first — scoring twice in its first at-bat for an early 2-0 lead.
 
After cutting the deficit in half in their first at-bat — Hall drew a one-out walk, moved to third on a single by Berg, and scored on a wild pitch — the Cardinals took the lead for good in the third, scoring three times, all with two outs.
 
Berg kicked things off with a two-out walk and stole second. Nordlund drew a walk and Michelle Smith (Oak Lawn, Ill.), pinch-running for Berg, scored on a Bork single. Allison Ciero (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) followed with a two-run single up the middle to score both Nordlund and Bork — and the Cardinals never looked back.
 
Saint Mary's tacked on an insurance run in the fifth on a Nordlund single, scoring Hall — who led off the inning with a walk — and five runs was more than enough run support for Bork, who blanked the Scots on six hits over the final six innings in recording the complete-game pitching win.
 
Ciero finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs to pace the Cardinals, while Berg, Nordlund, Bork, and Cassie Sutor (Chicago, Ill.) accounted for SMU's other four Game 2 hits.
 
The Cardinals (7-5 MIAC, 15-13 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, when they travel to Bethel's Ona Orth Athletic Complex in Arden Hills, Minn., for a 3:30 p.m. MIAC doubleheader against the Royals.
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