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| 2007 Final Records: 17-5 MIAC, 24-15 Overall |
| Recent Results: Saint Mary's 6, St. Olaf 2 / Details Saint Mary's 8, St. Olaf 5 / Details UW-River Falls 3,, Saint Mary's 2 / Details UW-River Falls 2,, Saint Mary's 1 / Details /MIAC Tournament Gustavus 10, Saint Mary's 7 / Details Saint Mary's 7, Hamline 1 / Details Saint Mary's 8, Gustavus 4 / Details St. Thomas 8, Saint Mary's 3 / Details |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals reached the MIAC Tournament championship game for the second time in the tournament's four-year history. … The 17 combined runs scored in SMU's tournament-opening 10-7 loss to Gustavus marked the most runs in a GAC-SMU meeting since the Gusties posted a 13-6 win on May 2, 1995. … SMU's championship-game loss to St. Thomas was the Cardinals' 15th straight vs. the Tommies, dating back to a 1-0 SMU win in the 2001 regional tournament — when current head coach Jen Miller was the Cardinals' starting catcher. … The Cardinals were retired in order in just three of the 28 innings they played during the MIAC Tournament. … Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) batted a team-best .462 in SMU's four conference tournament games. She also drove in four runs, boasted a .538 slugging percentage and collected one of SMU's two doubles — their only extra-base hits of the tournament. … Cassie Otte (Randolph, Minn.) was held hitless in SMU's title-game loss to St. Thomas, snapping her season- and career-high hitting streak at 17 games. … OIte, who finished second in conference play in runs (24) and third in hits (30), also closed out the season collecting two or more hits in 16 of the Cardinals' 39 games. … Otte finished as the team's offensive leader in average (.380), at-bats (142), runs (38), hits (54) and stolen bases (10), while Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) led the team in home runs (6), RBIs (49), total bases (66) and slugging % (.532). … Jung's six home runs and 46 RBIs were career highs. … Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) was the conference leader in doubles with eight. … Erin Leone (Farmington, Minn.) started Game 2 vs. St. Olaf last Tuesday, snapping a string of 20 straight starts — and 20 straight decisions — by senior Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.). … Wallisch threw all 26 innings in the MIAC Tournament, and ended her senior season with a 2.16 ERA and a 22-13 record. … Wallisch's 38 appearances, 36 starts, 21 complete games and 214 innings pitched are all SMU single-season records, while her 22 wins rank No. 3 all time. … Last Wednesday's eight-inning, 3-2 loss vs. UW-River Falls was SMU's first extra-inning game of the season. … SMU outscored its opponents in every inning, including a 26-15 advantage in first and a 28-15 edge in the seventh. … SMU was 17-4 when scoring first, and 12-2 when scoring in the first inning. … The Cardinals managed just one win in 12 games in which they were held to two or fewer runs, and were 23-4 when scoring three or more. |
MIAC's title game, but can't get past No. 1-ranked UST
 Friday's Games: |
The Cardinals plated more than twice as many runs Friday as they had in those four games combined, erupting for seven runs against GAC — and still lost, as the Gusties rolled to a 10-7 victory.
Thanks in part to a 7-1 elimination-game win over Hamline Friday, the Cardinals got another shot at the Gusties on Saturday.
And this time around, when it counted most, the Cardinals got the job done, scoring six, fifth-inning runs en route to an 8-4 victory.
That was the good news.
The bad news? The Cardinals' win over Gustavus earned them a championship-game berth against MIAC regular-season champion and top-ranked St. Thomas — a team SMU hadn't beaten in its last 14 games, dating back to a 1-0 SMU win in the 2001 regional tournament — when current head coach Jen Miller was the Cardinals' starting catcher.
Make that 15 straight games.
The Cardinals did score three runs off the nation's top-ranked team — but they also only managed one hit, and gave up a five-run fifth inning, as UST rolled to an 8-3 win in the tournament's title game.
"It's a tough way to lose, but it's hard to feel too disappointed," admitted SMU coach Jen Miller, who closed out her first season as the Cardinals' head coach with a 24-15 overall record — marking the 14th straight season in which SMU has won at least 20 games. "To bounce back from (Friday's) loss to Gustavus and beat them (Saturday) was great. We knew what was at stake in that game — we wanted one more shot at St. Thomas, and in order to get that chance, we had to beat (the Gusties)."
And beat them they did.
The Gusties jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning of the Cardinals' opening game Saturday, but, as was the case in Friday's first meeting between the two teams, a three-run lead meant little.
After getting at least one runner on base in each of the first three innings, SMU finally got on the board in the fourth, getting RBI singles from Danielle Geske (Rosemount, Minn.) and Megan Pulvermacher (Richland Center, Wis.) to cut the gap to 3-2.
The Cardinals then took the lead for good, taking advantage of three bases-loaded GAC walks — and RBI singles from Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) and Geske — to plate six runs and take a commanding 8-3 advantage.
GAC got one run back in the bottom of the fifth, but that was as close as the Gusties would get, as Megan Wallisch (Loveland, Colo.) held Gustavus in check over the final two innings to ice the win.
"Offensively, we were very good (against the Gusties)," Miller said. "Our two games against (Gustavus) weren't what you would expect — our games are usually low-scoring, one-run affairs. So for us to score (a combined) 15 runs against them was outstanding."
It also emptied the Cardinals' offensive tank.
SMU managed just a first-inning, two-out single by Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) against the Tommies.
UST, meanwhile, jumped on Wallisch for two runs in the third, and, after surrendering an RBI groundout to Jenna Johnson (Menomonie, Wis.) in the fourth, the Tommies' bats heated up, riding a par of triples and a double to five runs in the fifth — and their fourth straight MIAC Tournament title.
"St. Thomas is a tough, tough team," said Miller. "And you aren't going to beat a team like that with just one hit. I thought we did a nice job of being patient at the plate (walking five times), we just couldn't get the clutch hits when we needed them.
"I'm proud of this team and what they've accomplished — and there's no question we're going to miss our five seniors," added Miller, who watched Jung, Wallisch, Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights), Tara Close (North St. Paul, Minn.) and Megan Schaar (Lake Ville, Ill.) play their final collegiate games as Cardinals. "I got a few grey hairs this year, but overall, I'm happy with the season we had."