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Cardinal Roster
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Cardinal Statistics
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Cardinal Schedule
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MIAC Standings
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MIAC Statistics
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| 2007 Records: 15-5 MIAC, 20-11 Overall |
| Recent Results: Saint Mary's 4, Augsburg 1 / Details Saint Mary's 13, Macalester 5 / Details Saint Mary's 17, Macalester 1 (5) / Details UW-L 4, Saint Mary's 1 (5, rain) / Details Saint Mary's 4, Carleton 2 / Details Saint Mary's 11, Carleton 4 / Details |
| Upcoming Games: Mon., April 30: SMU at St. Olaf, 4:00 Tues., May 1: SMU at UW-River Falls, 4:00 MIAC Tournament G1: #1 St. Thomas vs. #4 Hamline at Bethel, 3:00 G2: #2 Gustavus vs. #3 Saint Mary's at Hamline, 3:00 G3: G1 winner vs. G2 winner at Bethel, 5:00 G4: G1 loser vs. G2 loser at Hamline, 5:00 . |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals' Game 2 win vs. Carleton Saturday earned SMU a berth in the MIAC Tournament. The Cardinals enter this weekend's tournament as the No. 3 seed and will square off against Gustavus in a 3 p.m. opening-round game. The Gusties swept the teams' regular-season meetings this year, and beat the Cardinals twice in last year's MIAC Tournament. … With four games left in the regular season (Monday at St. Olaf and Tuesday at UW-River Falls), the Cardinals have already locked up their 14th straight 20-win season. … Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) picked up her team-leading 10th double and was a perfect 3-for-3 in Game 1 vs. Carleton Saturday. Giannini finished the week with 10 hits in 14 at-bats (.714), including three doubles and a .929 slugging percentage. … Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.), who launched her team-leading fifth home run vs. the Knights, drove in 12 runs and hit .579 in SMU's six games last week. … The Cardinals' loss against UW-La Crosse Thursday snapped SMU's season-high eight-game winning streak. … After opening the season with four straight losses, SMU has gone 20-7 in its last 27 games. … SMU's 17 runs vs. Macalester in Game 2 Wednesday were a season high. SMU's 18 hits and 15 RBIs in Game 2 vs. the Scots were also season highs. All told, SMU had five starters hit .625 or better vs. Macalester. … The Cardinals were held to a season-low two hits vs. UW-La Crosse Thursday. … SMU's loss to the Eagles was also the first time the Cardinals have been shut out since losing to Gustavus 2-0 on April 19. … Macalester's five runs in Wednesday's 13-5 loss equalled the most runs allowed by the Cardinals in their last 12 games, dating back to a 7-6 loss at No. 5 UW-Eau Claire. … Melissa Mondo's (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) third-inning Game 1 single vs. the Scots snapped a streak in which SMU went 24 straight hits without an extra-base hit. The Cardinals finished the week with 14 extra-base hits 11 doubles, 1 triple and 2 home runs). … The Cardinals have scored 14 seventh-inning runs in their last five games combined, and have now outscored their opponents 23-11 in the seventh. … SMU has not played an extra-inning game all season. … The Cardinals are now a perfect 10-0 when scoring in the first inning, but SMU is still winless (0-5) when their opponent scores in the first. |
to lock up MIAC Tournament berth, 20-win season
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Jenny
Giannini ..714 BA, 3 2Bs in six games |
A sweep of Carleton would guarantee the Cardinals a spot in the four-team MIAC Tournament.
Two wins would also give SMU its 14th straight 20-win season.
Mission(s) accomplished.
The Cardinals broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth mining — one on Nikki Jung's (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) team-leading fifth home run of the season and the other on an RBI double by Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) — en route to a 4-2 victory over the Knights in the opener.
SMU then completed its mission in impressive fashion, scoring at least one run in five of the six innings it batted — including a game-changing five-run second inning — in routing the Knights, 11-4.
"We knew the importance of these two games and we came out focused and determined to get the job done," said SMU coach Jen Miller, whose team improved to 15-5 in the MIAC and locked up the No. 3 spot in this weekend's MIAC Tournament."We've struggled getting our bats going early in games lately, but today we came out swinging right from the start and never let up."
SMU jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the opener, sandwiching single runs in the first and second around a Carleton second-inning run. The Knights added their second unearned run of the game to tie things up in the fourth, before Jung and Close — two of five seniors playing in their final home doubleheader — delivered the knockout blows in the fifth.
"It's great to see the seniors step up and play so well in their final home games," said Miller, who watched as Jung went 3-for-6 with 3 RBIs, while Close was 3-for-7 with a pair of RBIs in the two games. "Nikki and Tara really stepped up offensively — as did (Melissa) Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn. / 2-for-7, 2 runs scored) — and we got great pitching from (senior) Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo. / 12 IP, 10 hits, four earned runs, nine strikeouts).
"We let Carleton hang around a little too long (in the first game), and it was nice to see us jump on them early (in the second game)," continued Miller, whose team's sweep of the Knights completed a 5-1 week for SMU. "We need our bats to continue to produce if we are going to make any kind of a run (in the conference tournament).
SMU jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings in Game 2, but Wallisch delivered one pitch she'd love to have back — surrendering a one-out, grand slam home run to Michael Johnson — that cut the Cardinals' lead to 6-4.
Hannah Schmitt (Rosemount, Minn.) delivered two of her four Game 2 RBIs with a single in SMU's three-run fourth inning, and the Cardinals then iced the win with single runs in the fifth and sixth.
"I'm very happy with our performance (vs. Carleton)," said Miller, whose team closes out its regular season schedule with doubleheaders at St. Olaf on Monday and at UW-River Falls Tuesday, before heading to St. Paul, Minn., to square off against Gustavus in the opening round of the MIAC Tournament. "We've got a couple of big doubleheaders to start the week — hopefully we can play well and build some momentum heading into the (MIAC) tournament."