CLERMONT, Fla. — After four straight games against opponents they had never faced before, the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team squared off against a familiar foe in its first game of the afternoon Friday.
 
Fresh off victories over Thomas (10-1), Emmanuel (15-7), Heidelberg (3-2), and Penn State Behrend (15-11) — the Cardinals finally faced a team they were familiar with in Nebraska Wesleyan.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the second meeting with the Prairie Wolves did not turn out as favorable, as NWU erupted for seven runs in the top of the fifth inning in dealing Saint Mary's a 9-1, five-inning setback.
 
Saint Mary's offense used that NWU loss as a bit of a wake-up call — and took out its frustrations on its second opponent of the day, Elizabethtown — as the Cardinals scored three runs in each of the first three innings in cruising to an 11-4 trip-ending victory.
 
GAME 1: NEBRASKA WESLEYAN 9, SAINT MARY'S 1
The Cardinals actually grabbed the early lead against the Prairie Wolves, scoring a solo run in the bottom of the third. Karli Zetah (Goodhue, Minn.) was hit by a pitch and promptly stole second to lead off the frame, and, one out later, scored on an RBI single by Emily Bonk (Hudson, Wis.).
 
That, however, would be the extent of the offense for the Cardinals — who came into the game having scored a whopping 113 runs in their first 12 contests and were riding a six-game winning streak.
 
The one-run lead did not last long, as NWU took the lead for good with two runs in the fourth, before using a seven-run fifth-inning explosion to end the game in five innings.
 
Zetah, Bonk, and Abbie Stigler (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) accounted for SMU's three hits, while Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) was held hitless in two at-bats, snapping the Cardinal freshmen's career-opening 12-game hitting streak.
 
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 11, ELIZABETHTOWN 4     
After managing just three hits against NWU, the Cardinals nearly matched that total in the first inning — and they were just getting warmed up.
 
SMU got RBI singles from Ali French (Winona, Minn.) and Lizzie Pike (Rochester, Minn.), and Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) chipped in a sacrifice fly, to give the Cardinals a quick 3-0 lead.
 
And scoring three times in the first was so much fun, the Cardinals did it again in the second — and the third.
 
Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.) had the big hit in SMU's three-run second, belting a two-out, two-run double, while Breonna Methner (Woodbury, Minn.) delivered a two-run single in the third as SMU cruised to a commanding 9-0 lead after three frames.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
 
Three straight extra-base hits — back-to-back doubles by Bonk and Gabrielle Grover (Mantorville, Minn.) and a triple by Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.) — added two more SMU runs to make it 11-0.
 
Elizabethtown foiled the Cardinals' shutout bid, scoring four runs on four hits in the bottom of the fourth, but it was far too little, far too late.
 
Bonk, Grover and McGinnis all finished with two hits to pace the Cardinals, who got at least one hit from nine different players. Kenzie Gatz (Oswego, Ill.) picked up the pitching win — the first of her collegiate career — surrendering four runs on 10 hits in the complete game win.
 
Saint Mary's (12-2 overall) closed out their spring trip stay in Florida with a 5-1 record and are now off until March 23, when they kick off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against St. Catherine at the SMU Field.
 
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