ST. PAUL, Minn. — With just six games remaining in the regular season — and all six Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff berths still up for grabs — there is little margin for error for the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team when it took the field against Macalester on Tuesday
 
And, ironically, errors proved to be the word of the day in the first game of the teams' conference twinbill, as Saint Mary's took advantage of seven Scot errors — and erupted for seven, seventh-inning runs — in cruising to a 15-4 Game 1 victory.
 
Unfortunately, the Cardinals could have used a few of those 15 Game 1 runs in the nightcap, as the Scots limited SMU to just three runs — all coming in the third inning — in rallying for a 5-3 victory in the nightcap to earn the split.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 15, MACALESTER 4
The Cardinals wasted no time taking the upper hand, scoring once in their first at-bat. Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) opened the winning with a walk, moved to third on a single by Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.) and scored on an RBI ground-out by Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.).
 
Saint Mary's second at-bat was just as productive as its first, as the Cardinals scored for a second straight inning. Emily Bonk (Hudson, Wis.) kicked things off with a one-out single. Abbie Stigler (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) put runners on first and second with a two-out walk, and Steffes delivered an infield single to score Bonk and extend the SMU lead to 2-0.
 
The trend continued for the Cardinals when they came to the plate in the third, scoring yet another solo run to extend their lead to 3-0. Bork led off the frame with a double, and, two outs later, came around to score on an Ali French (Winona, Minn.) single up the middle.
 
The streak of solo runs ended in the fourth, as Saint Mary's upped its game, scoring three times this time around, taking advantage of three Scots' errors, a pair of walks, and a wild pitch to push its lead to 5-0.
 
After managing just two hits in their first three innings against Steffes, Macalester finally got to the freshman right-hander in the bottom of the fourth, collecting five hits — including a pair of two-run home runs by Elizabeth Welch and Callia Holland — to trim the SMU lead to 6-4.
 
Saint Mary's regained a little breathing room in the sixth, getting a two-out, two-run single by Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.), before tacking on seven more insurance runs in the seventh — thanks to four hits and three more Scot errors.
 
French led the Cardinals' offensive attack, going 3-for-5, while Steffes, Berg, Bork, Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.), and Lizzie Pike (Rochester, Minn.) all chipped in two hits.  Steffes, Berg, and French all had two RBIs, while Steffes and Stigler scored three times, and Bork and Bonk both crossed home plate twice.
 
GAME 2: MACALESTER 5, SAINT MARY'S 3
It took a few innings before the Cardinals' offense returned to form, as Saint Mary's broke a scoreless deadlock with three runs in the top of the third. Pike was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, moved to second on a Stigler sacrifice bunt, and scored on a triple by Steffes to right-center. Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.) made it 2-0 with an RBI single, and Berg extended the lead to 3-0 with an RBI double to left-center.
 
Macalester got one run back in its half of the third, tagging SMU starting pitcher Kenzie Gatz (Oswego, Ill.) for one hit — while taking advantage of a pair of Cardinal errors — before taking its first lead of the doubleheader in the fourth, scoring four runs on three hits to take it a 5-3 Scot lead.
 
And the Cardinals would not be able to put together the much-needed late-game rally, coming up empty in their final three at-bats.
 
Steffes was the only Cardinals with more than one hit, going 2-for-4, while McGinnis, Bork, Berg, French, and Bonk accounted for SMU's other five hits.
 
The Cardinals (13-5 MIAC, 25-9 overall) close out their regular-season schedule this weekend, hosting Augsburg and Hamline in back-to-back 1 p.m. conference doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at the SMU Field.
  Read Full Article