WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team did everything it could do to raise its stock among the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff field.
 
Now, it's a matter of playing the waiting game.
 
The Cardinals closed out their regular-season schedule in impressive fashion — recording a pair of back-to-back, come-from-behind victories over Hamline Friday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Field, beating the Pipers 3-2 in eight innings and 4-2.
 
With the two wins, Saint Mary's completed its conference schedule with a 17-5 record — leaving the Cardinals sitting third in the standings, with most teams in the playoff mix concluding their MIAC slates on Saturday.
 
A split between Bethel and Saint Benedict on Saturday in St. Joseph, Minn., would put SMU in a three-way tie with the Royals and Bennies for the regular-season conference title — and via a 3-1 record head-to-head against tied teams, Saint Mary's would get the No. 1 seed and would host next Saturday's MIAC Playoff semifinal and championship games. A sweep by either BU or CSB, and Saint Mary's would land the No. 2 seed and would head to the No. 1 seed site next Saturday.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 3, HAMLINE 2 (8 innings)
Hamline struck first, scoring a solo run off SMU starter Makayla Steffes (Winona, Minn.) in the opening inning, and maintained that one-run advantage until the fourth ­— when SMU scored a pair of runs on a Piper fielding error to take a 2-1 lead.
 
It appeared as if SMU would make that 2-1 advantage stand up, only to have Hamline tag Steffes with the game-tying run on a hit batter and a two-out single to send the game into extra innings.
 
After holding HU off the board in the top of the eighth, SMU came through in the bottom of the frame. Allison Ciero (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) was placed on second via the international tie-breaker run, was sacrificed to third, and scored on a one-out single by Zoe Fink (Stevens Point, Wis.).
 
Heather Nordlund (Byron, Minn.) and Peyton Berg (Chatfield, Minn.) each had two hits, while Steffes, Fink, Megan McGinnis (Appleton, Wis.), Breonna Methner (Woodbury, Minn.), Emily Bonk (Hudson, Wis.), and Lizzie Pike (Rochester, Minn.) all had one hit.
 
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 4, HAMLINE 2
The second game had an eerily similar feel to the first, as Hamline once again scored the game's first run with a solo tally in its first at-bat.
 
And for the second game in a row that the sixth inning proved to be the pivotal frame.
 
Hamline extended its lead to 2-0 with a single run in the top of the third, with Saint Mary's answering in its half of the third — getting a lead-off single by Steffes and an RBI single up the middle by Naleya Bork (De Pere, Wis.) to cut the HU lead in half, 2-1.
 
And then came the sixth.
 
Staring at a one-run deficit, the Cardinals strung together three hits and took advantage of a Piper error to score three times in the bottom of the sixth to grab a 4-2 lead. Kenzie Gatz (Oswego, Ill.) delivered the big hit in the inning, driving in two runs with a one-out single and SMU added its third run on a wild pitch to secure the sweep-clinching Game 2 victory.
 
Steffes led the Cardinals' 10-hit attack in the nightcap, going 3-for-4, while Bork delivered two hits in three at-bats, and picked up the pitching win — going 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out one. Steffes worked the final two-thirds of an inning to secure her team-leading fourth save.
 
 
 
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