WINONA, Minn. — If there was one thing that could be said for the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team's conference-opening doubleheader against Hamline Monday at the SMU Field, it's that it certainly had a flair for the dramatic.
Which worked both in the Cardinals' favor, and against it.
Ali French (Winona, Minn.) belted a walk-off, RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Saint Mary's to a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference twinbill, while Hamline scored four runs in the top of the seventh — and held off the hard-charging Cardinals in the bottom of the frame to earn a split with a 6-5 Game 2 victory.
GAME 1: IT'S NOT OVER, UNTIL IT'S OVER
The Pipers looked like they might run away with the opener, scoring three runs on three hits in its very first at-bat.
Over the next six innings, however, HU would manage just one more hit — a fourth-ininng lead-off single — off Cardinal starting pitcher
Sarah Kraus (Onalaska, Wis.).
And the Cardinal offense was just getting warmed up.
Saint Mary's scored solo runs in the first — on a lead-off solo home run by
Riley Hall (Dallas Center, Iowa) — third and fourth innings to pull even with the Pipers 3-3.
Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) delivered SMU's third-inning run with a two-out single, and
Mackenzie Carey drove in the game-tying run in the fourth on a two-out single.
The game would remain deadlocked until the seventh, when Hall was hit by a pitch with one out and French laced a run-scoring double to left-center to give SMU the 4-3 victory.
Nordlund finished a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate to fuel SMU's nine-hit attack, while French went 2-for-4 and
Abbie Stigler (Menomonie, Wis.) was 2-for-3. Kraus allowed just those three first-inning runs, and scattered four hits, while walking one and striking out three in the complete-game victory.
GAME 2: TURNING THE TABLES.
The Pipers once again jumped out on top, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the third inning. And for the second game in a row, the Cardinals had an answer, this time scoring a solo run on an RBI single by Nordlund in the bottom of the third, before taking their first lead of the gamge with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Saint Mary's clung to that one-run advantage until the seventh — and what a seventh in proved to be.
Hamline tagged SMU starter
Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.) for four runs on five hits in its half of the seventh to grab what appeared to be a commanding 6-3 lead. Saint Mary's, however, wasn't about to go down without a fight, scoring a pair of runs on a Bork home run down the left-field line — and putting runners on first and third with two outs, only to have HU pitcher Sophie Stork induce a game-ending groundout to seal the Piper victory.
Bork and Nordlund both finished with two hits in four at-bats, while Bork added a pair of RBIs and two runs scored. Hall,
Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.),
Zoe Fink (Stevens Point, Wis.), and
Allison Ciero (Glen Ellyn Ill.) accounted for SMU's other five hits.
The Cardinals (1-1 MIAC, 7-9 overall) are back in action on Thursday, when the Cardinals return to the SMU Field for a 3:30 p.m. conference doubleheader against St. Catherine in a twinbill originally scheduled for last Saturday.
