GREENCASTLE, Ind. — When the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team took the field Friday morning for its NCAA Regional winner's bracket game against Coe, it marked the second time this season the Cardinals and Kohawks had squared off.
 
This time around, however, the stakes were much, much greater.
 
With a payoff that was much more heartbreaking.
 
The Cardinals and Kohawks both used big innings to get past their first-round regional opponents — Saint Mary's scoring five times in the sixth inning of a 7-3 victory over host DePauw, while Coe plated all four of its runs in the fifth to beat Baldwin Wallace 4-2 — and it was another big inning that decided Friday's contest.
 
Coe — 5-4 winners over Saint Mary's in an eight-inning affair in late February —  scored the game's final four runs, including three in the top of the ninth in dealing Saint Mary's a 6-3 setback.
 
With the loss, the Cardinals (32-10 overall) will play DePauw in an elimination game at 4 p.m. (EST) Friday. SMU beat the Tigers 7-3 in an opening round game on Thursday. Coe (33-9 overall), meanwhile, advances to Saturday's regional championship, where the Kohawks will face either Saint Mary's or DePauw.
 
Coe threatened in the top of the first, getting a one-out single by Ruby Kappeler. Kappeler stole second and moved to third on an SMU error on the play, but Cardinal starting pitcher Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) worked out of the jam, inducing a pair of fly-ball outs to end the inning.
 
Saint Mary's also got a one-out single in its first plate appearance, coming off the bat of Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.). Unlike the Kohawks, however, the Cardinals cashed in — thanks to Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.), who launched an Ellie Thurow offering over the fence in center field for her team-leading ninth home run of the season, and a 2-0 Saint Mary's advantage.
 
The Kohawks took advantage of a two-out walk to cut the Cardinals' lead in half in the third. Boeckenstedt reached on a four-pitch free pass, and scored when Kappeler laced a double to left. Madi Parson followed with a walk, chasing Steffes from the pitcher's circle, but Naleyah Bork (De Pere, Wis.) came on to get out of the inning and preserve a 2-1 SMU lead.
 
The one-run cushion did not last long, as Saint Mary's answered Coe's solo run in the top of the third with one of its own in the bottom half of the frame. Steffes led off the inning with a single, was sacrificed to second, and, after Bork walked and Berg struck out, Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) delivered a run-scoring single up the middle to put the Cardinals back in front by two, 3-1.
 
Coe picked up its second run of the game in the fourth, getting back-to-back one-out walks to Shaylee Dodd and Bree Mangelsen, and a run-scoring single off the bat of Keera Ball to once again claw within one, 3-2.
 
After a scoreless fifth, Coe appeared poised to make some noise in the sixth, putting runners on first and second via consecutive walks to Dodd and Mangelsen, but Kenzie Gatz (Oswego, Ill.) —SMU's third pitcher of the afternoon — wiggled out unscathed, getting a strikeout and a fielder's choice groundout to maintain SMU's 3-2 advantage.
 
Saint Mary's also put two runners on in the sixth, sandwiching singles by Ali French (Winona, Minn.) and Lizzie Pike (Rochester, Minn.) around a Bork fly-out to center. A double-steal advanced the runners to second and third, but like the Kohawks in the top of the inning, SMU came away empty-handed.
 
The Kohawks refused to go down without a fight in the seventh, getting a lead-off single from Marissa Vodicka, who was quickly sacrificed to second. One out later, Kappeler laced the third pitch she saw from Gatz through the right side to knot the game at 3-3.
 
Saint Mary's had a golden opportunity to put the game away in the bottom of the seventh, putting runners on second and third with two outs — thanks in part to singles by McGinnis and Berg — but Thurow set the game into extra innings by getting Nordlund to fly out to right.
 
Gatz had to do her best Houdini impression in the top of the eighth, giving up two straight singles to open the inning, only to come back and record a fly-out to center and induce a double play on a pop out to second to keep the game deadlocked at 3-3.
 
Coe took its first lead of the game in a big way in the top of the ninth, scoring three times to grab a 6-3 lead. Boeckenstedt opened the rally with a single down the right-field line, and scored on a Kappeler single to right-center. Parson then lifted a Gatz offering over the fence in right-center to give the Kohawks a three-run cushion.
 
Playing from behind for the first time in the regional, the Cardinals' last-gasp, ninth-inning effort came up short. Abbie Stigler (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) opened the SMU ninth with a single, but was forced out at second on a Steffes ground ball to third. McGinnis walked to put runners on first and second, but a second fielder's choice groundout and fly out to center ended the threat — and SMU's bid for regional win No. 2.
 
McGinnis, Berg, Bonk, and Stigler all finished with two hits to pace the Cardinals' 12-hit attack, with Steffes, Nordlund, French, and Pike each chipping in one hit.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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