WINONA, Minn. — Who needs to play seven innings?
 
The Saint Mary's and St. Catherine fastpitch softball teams needed just the first inning to decide the outcome in both games of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader Friday.
 
St. Catherine scored four runs in its first at-bat, and never relinquished the lead in dealing the Cardinals an 11-2 setback in Game 1 at the SMU Field, while Saint Mary's turned the tables in the nightcap, erupting for six first-inning runs in rolling to a 7-2 win and a split in the conference twinbill.
 
GAME 1: TOUGH START
The Wildcats did not waste any time taking control of Game 1, scoring four runs on three hits — including a two-run double by Natalee Sigl — before plating three more runs in the top of the second for an early 7-0 lead.
 
Saint Mary's tried to mount a comeback, scoring solo runs in the second and third — including Riley Hall's (Dallas Center, Iowa) second home run in as many conference doubleheaders — but it was not enough, as SCU tacked on two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to seal the victory.
 
Hall finished with two of SMU's six hits in the opener, going 2-for-4, while Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.) chipped in a 2-for-3 effort and Allison Ciero (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Abbie Stigler (Menomonie, Wis.) accounted for the Cardinals' other two hits.
 
GAME TWO: TURNING THE TABLES
The Cardinals took a page out of St. Catherine's playbook in the nightcap, sending 10 batters to the plate in their first at-bat, parlaying six hits into six runs — and a quick, 6-0 advantage.
 
Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) and Berg drove in SMU's first two runs — Nordlund's on an RBI single and Berg delivering an RBI double. Ciero then delivered the biggest hit of the inning, a three-run double down the left-field line, and scored Saint Mary's sixth run of the inning on a wild pitch.
 
St. Catherine got two runs back in the top of the second, but that would be all the offensive the Wildcats would muster against Saint Mary's starter Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.), who tossed a complete-game five-hitter.
 
Saint Mary's added a solo run in the sixth on an RBI single by Nordlund, and Bork set down the Wildcats in order in the top of the seventh — capped by a strikeout of Julia Azure — to secure the win, and the MIAC split.
 
Ciero was a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored and three RBIs to pace SMU's 13-hit attack, while Nordlund and Berg each posted a pair of hits.
 
The Cardinals (2-2 MIAC, 8-10 overall) are right back in action on Saturday, when they travel to the Dundas Dome in Dundas, Minn., for a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader against Carleton.
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