The Teams
Saint Mary's Cardinals (1-1 MIAC, 9-5 Overall)
vs.
Macalester Scots (0-0 MIAC, 0-12-1 Overall)
The Vitals
Saturday, April 7 • SMU Field • 1 p.m.
Last Action
The Cardinals, currently ranked No. 1 in the latest NFCA Top 25 poll, are coming off an impressive 6-3, 9-1 nonconference sweep of 11th-ranked UW-Eau Claire on Friday. … The Scots,meanwhile, have not played since March 22, when they dropped back-to-back games to Cal Baptist (18-12) and Concordia (Calif.) (10-0).
Last Meeting
The Cardinals breezed past Macalester in their MIAC doubleheader last season, winning 10-1 and 16-3.
Conference Standings
Through Friday, April 6, 2001
Cardinal Update
Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Jennifer Miller (Winona, Minn.) each went 4-for-6 in the sweep of the Blugolds, while Gina Rizzardi (Woodbury, Minn.) and Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) both drove in four runs. … After snapping a season-high four-game losing streak with a win vs. St. Thomas on Wednesday, the Cardinals have now won three straight. … Three of SMU’s five losses have come by one run and all five have come vs. either ranked NCAA Division III opponents (Cabrini, Central-Iowa and St. Thomas), or an NCAA Division II school (Winona State). … In their last two doubleheaders, SMU has faced four former Cardinal coaches — head coaches John Tschida (now with St. Thomas) and Deb Steward (now UW-Eau Claire), and assistants Tim Gormley (St. Thomas) and Bob Miexner (UW-Eau Claire).
Scot Update
Macalester has been outscored 154-34 in its first 13 games — and the Scots scored 12 of those 34 runs in their 18-12 loss to Cal Baptist. … Meghan Pederson (.320 BA, 2 doubles, 5 RBIs) and Cristin Beach (.313, 10 hits) lead the Macalester offense. … Jaclyn Chavez (8.30 ERA) has appeared in 10 of the Scots’ 13 games on the mound, striking out 17 batters. … Macalester has been shut out in six of its 12 losses.
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CARDINAL PROFILELaura Miller
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Cardinals looking to keep offense
shifted in high gear vs. Macalester
WINONA, Minn. — When UW-Eau Claire scored a pair of runs in its first at-bat Friday, Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball coach Nikki Fennern didn’t show the slightest bit of concern.
When the Blugolds made it 3-0 with an unearned run in the fourth and maintained that three-run cushion through four-and-one-half innings, Fennern didn’t flinch a bit.
Despite the deficit, and the fact that SMU was running out of at-bats, the Cardinals’ head coach never considered hitting the panic button — not even for a second.
Patience, that was the key — and Fennern knew it.
The Cardinals proved Fennern’s “wait-and-see” theory to perfection as they erupted for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, then added two more for good measure in the sixth, en route to a 6-3 victory in the first game of their nonconference doubleheader.
Still sizzling from their Game 1 win, the Cardinals battered UW-Eau Claire starter Jessica Sharpe for four first-inning runs and added four more in the fifth as SMU completed the sweep with a six-inning, 9-1 rout.
“I knew it was going to be just a matter of time before we got the bats going,” admitted Fennern, whose team managed just three hits through the first three innings of the opener, but finished the doubleheader with 21 hits. “(Eau Claire’s pitchers) threw more off-speed pitches, and it’s always tough to adjust to a slower pitcher.
“I knew we’d come around, we just needed to be patient at the plate.”
In Game 1, Gina Rizzardi (Woodbury, Minn.) laced a two-run, bases-loaded double and Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) followed up with a two-run single as SMU quickly erased the Blugolds’ three-run advantage — and never looked back. The Cardinals added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI groundout by Jennifer Meyer (Oconomowoc, Wis.) and an RBI single by Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.), who also picked up the complete-game, four-hit win on the mound.
The Cardinals' bats continued to sizzle in the nightcap, as Jennifer Miller (Winona, Minn.) and Hocking went 2-for-3 for the second straight game, while Rizzardi and Huegel duplicated their first-game efforts by driving in two runs, and Annie Hovde (Cottage Grove, Minn.) added a two-run, pinch-hit, sixth-inning double.
“Offensively, we’ve been hitting the ball hard all season, but a lot of those hits were right at people,” said Fennern, whose club looks to continue its winning ways this afternoon against Macalester. “(Against UW-Eau Claire) those hits found the holes, and that was the difference.
“I think it’s safe to say that we’re definitely back on track.”