Winona State hands SMU pair of 1-run losses

WINONA, Minn. — Winona State University used the three-hit pitching of Cyndy Schubbe to post a 1-0 victrory in the first game, then got scored the game-winning run with one out in the ninth inning for a 5-4 win and a sweep of the Warriors' nonconference doubleheader with the Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team Monday afternoon.

Schubbe held the Cardinals to just three singles — two by Niki Lynch (Winona, Minn.) — in winning the Game 1 pitching duel with SMU's Jill Hocking (Apple Valley, Minn.), who held WSU to five hits, but gave up the game's lone run on a two-out single by the Warriors Jamie Benedict in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Cardinals hammered out 11 hits in the nightcap, but couldn't shake the Warriors, who scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game 3-3, scored another to knot the game again, 4-4, after seven innings, then plated the game-winner on Kari Webers one-out, bases-loaded grounder to second.

Hocking laced the team's first home run of the season, a solo shot in the top of the third to give SMU a short-lived 2-0 advantage. WSU got one run back in the bottom of the third, but the Cardinals regained the two-run edge on Lindsey Smith's (Elma, Iowa) RBI single in the fourth. Smith finished Game 2 3-for-4 to lead the Cardinal offensive attack.

Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.) took the loss for SMU (6-4 overall), allowing five runs on 12 hits, while striking out three in 8.1 innings of work.