NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It took an extra 12 days, but for the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team, it was worth the wait.
After three postponements, the Cardinals — who were originally scheduled to face Carleton on April 3, only to have the MIAC doubleheader moved to April 7, then to April 16, and finally to Thursday — made quick work of the Knights.
Saint Mary's needed just five innings to dispatch of the host Knights in the opener, rolling to an 8-0 win, before completing the sweep with a 6-3 victory in the nightcap at Ele Hansen Field.
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 8, CARLETON 0 (5 innings)
After coming up empty in their first two at-bats, the Cardinals turned up the offensive heat in the third inning, scoring five times.
Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.) drove in SMU's first run of the inning with an RBI groundout.
Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.) followed by drawing a two-out walk, before back-to-back singles by
Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.) and
Ali French (Winona, Minn.) loaded the bases.
Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) promptly unloaded the bases — launching a grand slam home run to center — to give SMU a 5-0 cushion.
Abbie Stigler (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) scored on a wild pitch and McGinnis plated SMU's seventh run of the game with her second RBI ground out in the fourth, while Stigler added a run-scoring single in the fifth to round out the scoring.
Berg was the only Cardinal with more than one hit, going 3-for-3, while six other SMU players collected one hit to account for Saint Mary's nine hits.
Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) picked up the pitching win, allowing five hits — including four singles and a double — in posting the five-inning shutout.
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 6, CARLETON 3
Saint Mary's didn't waste any time getting its offense revved up in the nightcap, as Steffes launched a lead-off home run in the top of the first to give SMU the early momentum. Carleton starter Sydney Trentman retired the next two batters in order, but a walk to Berg and a double by French set the table for Nordlund, who laced a two-run single to left to extend the Cardinal lead to 3-0 after half an inning.
Carleton scored its first run of the afternoon in the bottom of the first, but Nordlund continued to be an RBI machine for the Cardinals, driving in her third run of the game — and seventh of the afternoon — with a run-scoring single in the third to return SMU's advantage to three, 4-1.
Saint Mary's tacked on another run in the sixth, getting a lead-off walk by Lizze Pike (Rochester, Minn.), who was sacrificed to second, stole third, and scored on a Steffes out-out single. Carleton refused to go down quietly, however, whittling SMU's lead to three on a one-out, two-run single by Grace Colburn in the Knights' half of the sixth.
Three runs were more than enough cushion for Cardinal starter
Kenzie Gatz (Oswego, Ill.), who closed out her five-hit complete game by setting down the Knights in order in the seventh.
Steffes led the Cardinals' seven-hit Game 2 attack, going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and two RBIs. Nordlund chipped in two hits and three RBIs, while Stigler and French accounted for the other two hits.
The Cardinals (9-3 MIAC, 21-7 overall) are back in action with a pair of MIAC road doubleheaders this weekend. SMU will travel to St. Joseph, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference twinbill against Saint Benedict on Saturday, before continuing on to Moorhead, Minn., for a 1 p.m. double-dip against Concordia.
