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| 2007 Records: 0-2 MIAC, 4-6 Overall |
| Recent Results: St. Thomas 6, Saint Mary's 0 / Details St. Thomas 8, Saint Mary's 2 / Details |
| Upcoming Games: Thurs., April 5: SMU at St. Olaf, 4:00 Mon., April 9: Saint Benedict at SMU, 4:00 Wed., April 11: SMU at Augsburg, 4:00 Thurs., April 12: SMU at UW-Eau Claire,, 4:00 Sat., April 14: SMU at Hamline, 1:00 |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals’ Game 1 loss to St. Thomas last Thursday snapped SMU’s season-high four-game winning streak. It was also the third time this season that SMU has been shut out. … SMU has now dropped its last 14 meetings vs. St. Thomas, dating back to a 1-0 Cardinal win at the 2001 NCAA Regional Tournament — when Cardinal head coach Jen Miller was the team’s starting catcher. … After scoring 33 runs and banging out 51 hits during their four-game win streak, SMU was held to just two runs on 12 hits in its two games vs. the Tommies. … Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) went 4-for-6 against the Tommies, accounting for four of the Cardinals’ 12 hits. … Mondo and Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) each hit safely in both games vs. UST, extending their season-high hitting streaks to seven. Hanna Schmitt (Rosemount, Minn.), meanwhile, pushed her hitting streak to six vs. the Tommies. … Mondo has had at least one hit in eight of SMU’s 10 games, and has reached base safely in nine of 10. … Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) leads the team in virtually every offensive category, including average (.430), hits (13), home runs (2), RBIs (15), total bases (21), slugging percentage (.700), walks (4) and on-base percentage (.500). The SMU senior has also collected five multiple-hit games and five multiple-RBI games — including four RBIs in a game twice. … Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) has pitched a team-leading 48.2 innings, compiling a 4-4 record and a 3.51 ERA. She has fanned 19 batters and posted a team-leading three complete games. … The Cardinals have been outscored 51-40, including 17-8 in the fifth inning. … SMU has allowed five or more runs in five of its six losses. … The Cardinals are a perfect 4-0 when they score in the first inning, but they are 0-3 when their opponent scores in the first and 0-5 when their opponent scores the game’s first run. |
Miller, Cardinals in sweeping SMU in MIAC opener
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Melissa
Mondo 4-for-6 vs. St. Thomas |
Add to that the fact that the opposing coach was your coach when you were playing collegiate ball, and that's what Saint Mary's University first-year head fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller faced last Thursday afternoon at the SMU Field.
And the mentor certainly didn't take it easy on his former star catcher.
With John Tschida at the helm, St. Thomas gave the Cardinals a first-hand look at why they have won six of the last seven MIAC regular-season titles and are 114-5 against conference foes over the past five seasons.— they are good.
Very good.
The Tommies broke open a scoreless game with a single run in the fourth and four more in the fifth en route to a 6-1 win in the opener. UST's bats picked up right where they left off in Game 2, as St. Thomas scored in three of the first four innings in cruising to an 8-2 win and a sweep of the teams' conference opener.
"It's tough to open your conference season against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation," admitted Miller, whose team fell to 4-6 overall with the losses. "But everyone's got to face them sometime this season. Despite the final scores, I thought we played very well — we play like that the rest of the season, and we're going to win our share of games."
Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) and UST's Maria Bye were locked in a pitchers' duel through the first three innings of the opener, but the Tommies finally got to Wallisch in the fourth, as Bye helped her own cause with an RBI double to right-center.
The Tommies then put the game out of reach, combining three hits with one Cardinal error to score four more times and take a 5-0 advantage. Bye then completed the UST onslaught with a solo home run in the seventh.
UST didn't waste any time in the nightcap, scoring twice in both the first and third innings, before erupting for three more runs to take a commanding, 7-0 lead after four innings. SMU finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, getting RBI singles by Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) and Danielle Geske (Randolph, Minn.) to cut the gap to 7-2, but UST added another insurance run in the top of the seventh to ice the sweep.
"It was a little weird going head-to-head with Tschida — it's definitely different being the head coach and not the assistant," said Miller, who played for Tschida as a freshman and a sophomore — including the 2000 season, when the two helped bring SMU its first-ever national championship. "He's a great coach and I learned a lot playing under him. But I have to admit, it would have been nice to pick up a win against him."