WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team banged out 18 hits and scored 13 runs in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Concordia Sunday afternoon.

But the Cardinals' offensive exploits, while certainly pleasing to the eyes of coach Nikki Fennern, played second fiddle to the pitching performance of SMU sophomore Jenny Schipp (North St. Paul, Minn.).

Schipp tossed 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball and struck out 18 in leading the Cardinals to an 8-0, 5-0 sweep of the Cobbers at the SMU Field.

The sophomore right-hander tossed a six-inning no-hitter in the first game, leading the Cardinals to their 8-0 win that was shortened to six innings by the eight-run rule, then carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the nightcap, before giving up back-to-back one-out singles in settling for a two-hit shutout.

"Jenny actually pitched very well in the second game (Saturday) against St. Catherine," said Fennern of Schipp's three-hit shutout in Saturday's 10-0, five-inning win over the Wildcats. "And we talked a lot on the bus ride home about how important it was for her to get back into that same zone mentally today."

And zoned in she was.

Schipp allowed just three base runners in the first game, with only one making it as far as second base. She was just as dominant in the nightcap, allowing just a leadoff walk to Jolene Robertus in the third through the game's first six innings.

Schipp opened the seventh by getting Stephanie Gemar to ground out to third. Mandy Pearson then foiled the sophomore's bid for a second straight no-hitter by lacing an 0-2 pitch into right for a single. Lisa Kott followed with a single to left, but Schipp got a pair of weak pop outs to end the game.

The Cardinals broke open a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth of the first game, scoring five times, before adding two more in the sixth to seal the win. SMU scored a single run in the third inning of the nightcap, then used a pair of back-to-back two-run innings in the fourth and fifth to push their season-high winning streak to three straight.

"This was a good all-around effort for us," said Fennern, whose offense was led by Amy Edge's (Mineral Point, Wis.) 3-for-4, 3-RBI performance in Game 1, and a 2-for-3 effort from Amy Lang (Oshkosh, Wis.) in the nightcap. "We didn't get out of the gates (in conference play) quite as fast as we would have liked, but we seem to finally have things on the right track."