The Teams
Saint Mary's Cardinals (18-2 MIAC, 29-6)
vs.
Bethel Royals (5-15 MIAC, 10-20)
The Vitals
Saturday, May 5 • SMU Field • 4 p.m.
Last Action
The Cardinals had their 22-game winning streak snapped in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader vs. St. Benedict. SMU rebounded from the 1-0 Game 1 loss with a 4-2 victory. … Bethel, meanwhile, is coming off 9-3 and 6-3 losses to St. Catherine on Thursday.
Last Meeting
The Cardinals did not allow a run in sweeping their conference doubleheader from Bethel a year ago, winning 18-0 and 10-0.
Conference Standings
Through Friday, May 4, 2001
This and That
With a sweep of Bethel, the Cardinals will lock up their fourth MIAC title in the last five years and earn the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA regional tournament. … Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) collected two of SMU’s four hits in the first game vs. the Blazers, while Laura Miller (White Bear Lake, Minn.) (two-run double) and Becky Limberg (La Crosse, Wis.) (RBI double) provided the key hits in Game 2. … Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.) picked up her 13th win — including her 10th straight — vs. St. Ben’s. … The Cardinals allowed more runs vs. St. Benedict (3) than they have in any doubleheader since giving up four runs in a 12-2, 16-2 sweep of St. Olaf on April 10. … The Cardinals are 12-1 on their home field. … Gina Rizzardi (Woodbury, Minn.) had her five-game hitting streak snapped in Game 1 vs. St. Benedict, while Annie Hovde (Cottage Grove, Minn.) extended hers to a team-leading six games with one hit in each game of the doubleheader. … Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.) has had a team-high 14 multiple-hit games, while Rizzardi leads the team with four three-hit games. … Hocking also boasts a team-leading 11 multiple RBI games.
SMU
Bethel
the line as Cardinals play host to Bethel
WINONA, Minn. — The race for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title, and that coveted automatic berth into the NCAA Division III regional tournament became crystal clear to the Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball team Wednesday evening.
And, ironically, it was a loss — OK, two losses — that transformed the Cardinals’ vision from 20-200 to 20-20.
With the Cardinals and St. Thomas deadlocked for the MIAC lead — having split their showdown in Week 1 of the conference schedule — it wasn’t a question of which team would win the conference crown, but rather, how.
If both teams won their remaining four conference games, they would be tied for the MIAC’s top spot. Since they split their regular-season games, the second tie-breaker was how they fared against the third-place team. And, should they remain tied, a coin-flip would determine who would be making regional tournament reservations, and who would be sitting anxiously by the phone, hoping for an at-large berth.
Then the unthinkable happened to the Cardinals, as St. Benedict pitcher Annalisa Jordan held SMU to just four hits — all singles — and the Blazers scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the fifth inning en route to a 1-0 victory.
A victory that appeared to knock the Cardinals right out of the title hunt.
In the time it took the Cardinals (who managed a split with CSB with a 4-2 win in Game 2)to travel from St. Joseph, Minn., back to Winona, however, the entire MIAC landscape changed — and the view was spectacular. If you’re a Cardinal fan, that is.
Thanks to Gustavus’ 1-0, Game 2 victory over St. Thomas Wednesday, the Cardinals were still tied atop the MIAC standings, and, with Gustavus cemented into the conference’s No. 3 spot, SMU held the second tie-breaker over the Tommies, since SMU swept the Gusties earlier this year.
Which means that, with two wins today against Bethel, the Cardinals will be making their fifth straight regional appearance — automatically.
“It didn’t take long for the news (of the Tommies’ loss) to get around,” admitted SMU coach Nikki Fennern. “Everyone knows the scenario — we win two and we’re in.”
And Fennern knows her Cardinals aren’t about to let this opportunity slip through their grasp.
“I think the St. Ben’s games served as a pretty good wake-up call,” she said. “We’re not about to take (Bethel) lightly. We don’t want to have to rely on an at-large berth to get in (to the regional tournament). We want that automatic berth.”
And the conference title that goes with it.