Rain delays not about to slow Cardinals
in 7-0 win over College of New Jersey

SALEM, Va. — By the time the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team capped off its 7-0 win over The College of New Jersey Friday evening in the second round of the NCAA Division III Softball Championships, Cardinal coach John Tschida didn't need to worry about what his players wanted for a post-game dinner.

Breakfast, on the other hand, was on everyone's mind.

Scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., but due to rain and lightning delays, didn't actually get underway until 9:30 p.m. — and didn't end until nearly 11:30 p.m. — the Cardinals found themselves warming up, then cooling down, then warming up, then cooling down — again and again and again.

"I feel like I've thrown four complete games," joked Tschida, who estimated he threw 800 pitches in his team's repeated pre-game batting practices. "What can you do? You can't control the weather. You'd like games to start on time, but that's not always the case."

And, once the game did finally get started, it was the Cardinals' bats, not Mother Nature, that extended length of the game.

SMU banged out 12 hits, including a perfect 3-for-3 performance from Jackie Huegel, a pair of hits from both Jill Hocking and Ann Munzenmeier, and a two-run home run by Jennifer Meyer, while scoring in four of the seven innings it batted.

"i thought we came out a little more nervous than we did yesterday (in a tournament-opening 5-1 win over Ithaca)," said Tschida. "We did not have as good a batting practice, and our infield warmup was pretty shaky.

"I think a lot of that can be attributed to all the delays," continued Tschida. "It's tough to keep your focus when your routine is constantly getting interrupted."

It didn't take the Cardinals long to regain that focus, however, as Hocking set the offensive tone with a double off the top of the fence in right-center in the top of the first inning.

"I knew right from the first inning that we were going to get our share of hits," said SMU pitcher Teisha Smith, who tossed a one-hitter in posting her fifth straight post-season victory. "It was kind of hard to keep warming up and then having to stop, but we weren't going to let that affect us. We're on a mission, and everyone is so focused on accomplishing that mission.

"We're just trying to take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time, and no matter what hurdles lay in front of us, we're determined to clear them all."

Even those put in their path by Mother Nature.