GREENCASTLE, Ind. — Calm … check.
 
Cool … check.
 
Collected … check.
 
Victorious … an emphatic, check.
 
The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team — making its first NCAA Regional appearance since 2005 — broke open a 2-2 stalemate with five runs in the top of the sixth inning, as the Cardinals opened the Greencastle Regional with a 7-3 victory over host DePauw Thursday afternoon.
 
With the win, third-seeded Saint Mary's (32-9 overall) advances to Friday's 11 a.m. (EST) winner's bracket game against top-seeded Coe — a 4-2 winner of Baldwin Wallace earlier on Thursday. A win over the Kohawks would advance SMU to Saturday's 11 a.m. (EST) title game, while a loss would put the Cardinals in a 3 p.m. (EST) elimination game on Friday.
 
If the Cardinals had any early-game national tournament jitters, they certainly didn't show it against the Tigers.
 
Saint Mary's came out swinging — literally — as Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) opened the regional tournament with a single up the middle and moved to second on a wild pitch on DePauw pitcher Riley Depa's first offering to Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.). McGinnis induced a walk and Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.) reached on a Tigers' fielding error to load the bases.
 
Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.) drew SMU's second walk of the inning, scoring Steffes with the game's first run. From there, however, the Cardinals' threat fizzled, as Depa got the first out of the inning on a strikeout and the Tigers turned a double play on an Ali French (Winona, Minn.) lineout to center, leaving SMU with a 1-0 edge after its first at-bat.
 
DePauw put two on in its half of the first — a one-out single by Libby Minobe and a two-out intentional walk to Emily Timberman, but Steffes worked out of the jam with a fly-ball out to second by Alex Romero-Salas.
 
The Cardinals had baserunners in both the second and third – including back-to-back two-out singles by McGinnis and Berg — but came up empty both times, leaving SMU clinging to its one-run lead.
 
With one swing of the bat in the fourth inning, however, the Cardinals' lead doubled from one, to two, as Lizzie Pike (Rochester, Minn.) launched her first collegiate home run — a two-out solo shot to center — to make it a 2-0 game.
 
 DePauw had an answer in the bottom of the fourth, getting a lead-off walk to Timberman and a single by Romero-Salas, and, after the two were sacrificed to second and third, Riley Heim cleared the bases with a two-run double to knot the game at 2-2.
 
Saint Mary's regained the advantage in the sixth in a big, big way — loading the bases with no one out on a single by Berg and a pair of misplayed sacrifice bunts. Bonk drew a bases-loaded walk — SMU's second bases-loaded free pass of the afternoon— to score the Cardinals' first run of the inning, and Pike followed with a two-run single to extend SMU's lead to 5-2.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished, as McGinnis delivered a two-run single of her own, this one with two outs to give Saint Mary's a commanding 7-2 advantage.
 
DePauw cut into the Saint Mary's lead in the bottom of the sixth on a Romero-Salas solo home run, but that would be as close as the Tigers would get, as Kenzie Gatz () closed the door in the seventh to seal the Cardinals' spot in Friday's winner's bracket game against Coe.
 
Pike and Berg each had two hits for the Cardinals, with Pike driving in three runs, while Steffes, McGinnis and Bork also had hits for SMU. Bork picked up the pitching win, allowing one run on one hit in relief of Steffes, who surrendered two runs on six hits in the first 4 2/3 innings. Gatz picked up her first collegiate save, blanking DePauw on one hit in the final 1 1/3 innings.
 
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