|
Cardinal Roster
|
Cardinal Statistics
|
|
Cardinal Schedule
|
MIAC Standings
|
|
MIAC Statistics
|
|
 |
 |
| 2006 Records: 10-2 MIAC, 14-10 Overall |
| Last Week's Results: Saint Mary's 2, Augsburg 1 (8) / Details Saint Mary's 7, Augsburg 1 / Details Saint Mary's 5, Saint Benedict 2 / Details Saint Mary's 3, Saint Benedict 1 (10) / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Tues., April 18: SMU at Bethel, 4 p.m. Thurs., April 20: Gustavus at SMU, 4 p.m. Sat., April 22: SMU at Concordia, 1 p.m. |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals rebounded from their back-to-back losses to top-ranked St. Thomas with six straight wins last week. … SMU has now won 11 of its last 13 games. … The Cardinals' 10-inning marathon vs. Saint Benedict last Thursday was their longest game of the season. … SMU is now 4-3 in extra-inning games — with all three losses ending in eight inings, while the Cardinals wins have been in eight innings (1), nine innings (2) and 10 innings (1). … Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) hit .500 (7-for-14) and drove in a pair of runs last week, while Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) hit .471 with four doubles and a .706 slugging percentage. … Jung also extended her hitting streak to 10 straight by hitting safely in all four games last week. … Gutterman, who had two or more hits in three of SMU's four games last week, boasts a team-leading 12 multiple-hit games. … SMU's pitching staff of Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.), Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) and Erin Leone (Farmington, Minn.) posted a 0.66 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 32 innings last week. … SMU is 11-2 when holding its opponents to two or fewer runs. … The Cardinals are 7-1 when scoring in the first inning and 11-2 when scoring first. … The Cardinals are a perfect 6-0 at home. |
with 4 straight wins — but it was anything but easy
|
Who's Hot?
|
  |
|
Nikki
Jung .500 (6-for-12), 1 2B, 5 RBIs last 4 games |
In fact, nothing comes easy for the Cardinals of late.
Less than 24 hours after SMU rallied from a 1-0, two-out, seventh-inning deficit to beat Augsburg 2-1 in eight innings in the first game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep last Wednesday, the Cardinals found themselves in dire need of some more late-inning heroics against Saint Benedict.
And, for the second straight day, the Cardinals delivered in the clutch.
After getting a complete-game, five-hitter from Jenny Schipp (Oakdale, Minn.) in winning the opener 5-2, the Cardinals and Blazers were deadlocked at 1-1 through the first seven innings — as well as the first two extra innings — before Jenni Gutterman (Shoreview, Minn.) and Schipp delivered 10th-inning singles to life SMU to a 3-1 victory in the nightcap.
"We sure didn't make it easy on ourselves — again," said SMU coach Nikki Fennern. "We struggled to string hits together (in the first game) against Augsburg — we got put runners in scoring position, we just couldn't get the key hits to drive them in.
"It was the same thing (in Game 2) against St. Ben's," continued Fennern, whose team banged out 12 hits in the second game vs. the Blazers, but managed just the three runs. "Fortunately, we were able to put something together (in the 10th inning) when we needed it most.
"We dodged another bullet today, no question about that."
The Cardinals broke open a 3-2 game with back-to-back runs in the sixth and seventh innings en route to the Game 1 win vs. Saint Benedict, but it wasn't until the 10th inning of Game 2 that SMU could shake the pesky Blazers.
Playing international rules, SMU put pinch-runner Megan McGraw (Woodbury, Minn.) on second base, and, after a failed attempt to sacrifice McGraw over to third, Gutterman delivered an RBI single. After Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) flew out for the second out, Schipp padded the Cardinals' lead with their second RBI single of the inning.
"This was another hard-fought pair of wins," said Fennern. "It was a little closer than I would have liked, but a wins a win — and in this conference, every win is a big win."