WINONA, Minn. — Maybe the ominous dark clouds that welcomed the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team on Thursday — and forced the postponement of Friday's opening-day games of the Midwest Regional Preseason Tournament — were an omen.

A bad omen.

Because, while the rain subsided enough for SMU to get in a pair of games on both Saturday and Sunday, the dark cloud remained fixed atop the Cardinals' heads.

Despite collecting 19 hits and scoring 12 runs, the Cardinals dropped back-to-back games to Washington University (13-9) and Wartburg (9-3) on Saturday.

And things didn't get any better in SMU's first game on Sunday, as Simpson held the Cardinals to one run on two hits — both hits coming in the fifth inning and their lone run coming in the sixth — as the Storm pushed SMU's losing streak to a season-high three games with a 2-1 victory.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, the cloud did have a silver lining, as SMU got back on the winning track in its final game of the tournament, jumping out to a 4-0 lead and surviving a three-run sixth to beat Illinois Wesleyan 4-3.

"It was a tough weekend," understated SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose team kicks off its MIAC campaign today against St. Benedict. "The competition we faced was some of the best we'll face all season, but we still didn't play nearly as well as we are capable of — and that's a little disappointing.

"Our pitching didn't come through the way we need it to," continued Fennern, whose pitching staff gave up 27 runs in the four games. "But that wasn't our only problem. It was just one of those weekends when, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't seem to do anything right."

Scoring runs wasn't a problem for the Cardinals during the first day of the rain-shortened two-day tournament.

Keeping their opponents from scoring, however, was.

The Cardinals banged out 13 hits and scored nine runs in their tournament-opener against host Washington University. Problem was, the Bearcats erupted for 10 fourth-inning runs en route to a 13-9 win.

In their second game, against Wartburg, the Cardinals hammered out another seven hits and plated three more runs. Wartburg, however, did SMU one better — no, make that six better — as the Knights battered the Cardinals' pitching staff for 13 hits and nine runs en route to a 9-3 win.

The Cardinals' bats cooled a bit on Sunday, as SMU managed just two hits against Simpson — a single by Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.) and a double by Gina Rizzardi (Woodbury, Minn.). The two hits, however, did not result in SMU's lone run. That came an inning later when Hanni Lohmann (Lake Elmo, Minn.) walked, was sacrificed to second and scored on back-to-back passed balls.

Simpson, meanwhile, scored both of its runs in the first, as the Storm strung together three straight hits — a single, a double and another single — all with two out.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Illinois Wesleyan, scoring once in the first and three times in the fourth. Illinois Wesleyan rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth — two coming when Lohmann, on in relief of starter Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.) was called for back-to-back illegal pitches.

"We needed that win," admitted Fennern. "We knew coming into this tournament that the competition was going to be very tough — we faced some of the toughest pitching we'll see all season. And to hit the ball the way we did, I guess you could say that was our silver lining.

"Hopefully we can use this as a learning experience," Fennern continued. "We need some people to step their games up a notch — and maybe this tournament was the wake-up call they needed."