1	2	3	4	5	6	7				R	H	E
Saint Mary's	0	1	1	0	0	0	0				2	9	5
Wheaton	2	0	0	0	0	0	1				3	5	1

Cardinals' hopes of defending title come to screeching halt with loss to Wheaton

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

The Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball team had the script all written out in their minds — use the lethal 1-2-3 punch of stellar hitting, unhittable pitching and air-tight defense that earned the Cardinals a return trip to the NCAA Division III National Championships to complete a second-straight national-title run.

Problem is, someone switched the script and didn't bother to tell the Cardinals.

SMU’s dreams of back-to-back national crowns went up in smoke Saturday evening, as Wheaton ad-libbed its way to an improbable 3-2 win — scoring the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh when the usually sure-handed Cardinals committed a pair of errors, the second of which allowed the winning run to score from third.

“It’s always tough to lose, but it’s extra-tough when you lose because you don’t play up to your potential,” said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose Cardinals entered the eight-team national tournament as the best fielding team in the nation, boasting a .974 fielding percentage, only to commit eight errors in their four tournament games — including five in the season-ending loss to Wheaton. “We know we are a better team than we showed, and I bet everyone that watched the tournament knows we’re a better team than that.

“We just picked the wrong time to play our worst game.”

The Cardinals, who survived a three-error performance in beating North Central 10-6 in a loser’s bracket elimination game earlier in the day Saturday, found themselves staring at a 2-0 deficit following the first inning against Wheaton.

Maren Schrader opened the Lyon’s first with an infield single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and advanced to third when Katie Zuman legged out the Lyon’s second infield single of the inning. SMU right fielder Lindsey Smith robbed Lucy Campbell of at least a single with a diving catch that scored Schrader, and Rachael Powers followed with an RBI double to center to score Zuman.

“They came at us right away and caught us a little off guard,” admitted Fennern. “They got a couple of infield hits and a big double from (Zuman). After that, we settled down and (offensively) played pretty well.”

The Cardinals offense, which collected 15 hits in beating North Central, picked up right where they left off against Wheaton, pounding out nine hits — including RBI doubles from Niki Lynch (Winona, Minn.) and Jackie Huegel (Alta Vista, Iowa) in the second and third innings, respectively, as SMU tied the game 2-2.

Unfortunately, that was all the scoring SMU could muster, as the Cardinals left runners stranded in both the fourth and fifth innings, before going down in order in the sixth and seventh.

And in the bottom of the seventh, disaster struck.

Carmelle Ranieri opened the inning with a weak grounder to first that Annie Hovde (Cottage Gorve, Minn.) fielded, but when the junior first-baseman went to tag Ranieri out, the ball popped out of her glove. Katie Boyle followed with an infield single and the two were sacrificed to second and third on a ground out to pitcher Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.). Hocking then got a key strikeout on Wheaton lead-off hitter Maren Schrader for the second out, and when Jill D’Arcy grounded to second baseman Lynch, it appeared the game was headed to extra innings. Hovde, however, couldn’t handle the throw, allowing Ranieri to trot home with the game-winning run.

“Everyone’s feeling pretty down right now,” understated SMU senior Jennifer Meyer (Oconomowoc, Wis.), who went 2-for-4 against the Lyons and finished the tournament with eight hits in 15 at-bats. “It’s really frustrating because we didn’t play nearly as well as we can (in the field), and offensively, we hit the ball hard in both games we lost — we just couldn’t string enough together.”

“We had our chances,” chipped in Fennern, whose team had at least one runner on base in 12 of the 14 innings of its two losses — Friday’s 2-0 loss to Muskingum and Saturday’s loss to Wheaton — and stranded 19 runners on base. “We just couldn’t get the job done when we needed to.

“It hurts, and it’s going to hurt for a while,” continued Fennern, whose team closes out its season with a 36-8 record. “But when the hurt wears off, and this team can sit back and reflect, they should be very proud of what they accomplished.

“They defended their national title like the true champions they are.”