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Saturday, April 26, 2003 |
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(Through Friday, April 25) |
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The Cardinals had to settle for a split in their MIAC doubleheader against St. Catherine on Thursday. SMU gave up a pair of solo home runs in dropping the opener, 2-1, then erupted for 10 runs in routing the Wildcats 10-1 in the nightcap. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, suffered its first two conference losses of th season Thursday, falling to Gustavus 4-3 and 1-0. |
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The Tommies allowed SMU just one run — on an RBI single by Niki Lynch (Winona, Minn.) — en route to an MIAC sweep of the Cardinals by scores of 5-1 and 5-0. It was just the third time in their last 94 doubleheaders that SMU had been swept. |
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The eight-inning opener vs. St. Catherine was the Cardinals’ third extra-inning game of the season. … Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.), Amy Edge (Mineral Point, Wis.) and Jen Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) all collected three hits against St. Catherine. … Two of Lang’s three hits were doubles. … Lang has now hit safely in five straight games. … Thursday’s Game 1 loss snapped SMU’s three-game winning streak. … St. Thomas entered Thursday’s DH vs. GAC having won 18 of its last 19 games. … SMU’s Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) and Krista Conway (Mendota Heights, Minn.) will be squaring off against their sisters today when they face UST’s Kristi Huegel and Nikki Conway. |
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Jackie Huegel Gina Rizzardi Niki Lynch |
WINONA, Minn. — When the week started, Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball coach Nikki Fennern knew that her Cardinals faced an uphill climb in their quest to dethrone St. Thomas as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s top dog.
After all, not only were the Cardinals facing a daunting schedule that included back-to-back-to-back doubleheaders — leading off with two games against then-unbeaten Gustavus — but they also knew that the end of the week held the real prize, a home showdown with the Tommies.
SMU managed a split with Gustavus last Tuesday, then added two impressive wins over Bethel on Wednesday, leaving them with an 11-3 conference mark heading into Thursday’s twinbill against St. Catherine.
Two wins against the Wildcats, and SMU could dethrone the mighty Tommies with a sweep today — and just a little outside help.
The Cardinals got that little bit of help when Gustauvs swept its MIAC doubleheader with St. Thomas Thursday, winning 4-3 in 10 innings and 1-0 in a game halted after the sixth due to darkness.
Unfortunately for SMU, someone forgot to tell St. Catherine about the Cardinals’ master plan, as the Wildcats got a lead-off home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat SMU 2-1 in the opening game of their MIAC doubleheader.
The Cardinals were in complete control in the nightcap, winning 10-1 in five innings, but the split leaves SMU four games back with six conference games left.
Now, if the Cardinals are going to return to the conference’s catbird seat, a sweep of UST is a must — but that little bit of outside help has turned into a lot of help.
“We just didn’t hit the ball in that first game,” said Fennern. “It’s kind of been that way all year – we either hit really well, or we don’t hit at all.”
It wasn’t that the Wildcats hit the ball all that well, either. It’s just that two of their swings went over the fence.
St. Catherine got on the board first in the opener on a solo home run in the fourth inning. The Cardinals tied the game in the top of the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) and Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.), only to have the Wildcats end it with their second solo home run of the game to lead off the eighth.
SMU left little doubt in Game 2, scoring five runs in the first inning, before adding two more in the second and three in the fourth.
“It’s pretty disheartening,” Fennern admitted of the split. “But we’ve got a lot to play for — we’ll be ready (for St. Thomas), there’ s no doubt about that.”