Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Cardinals’ MIAC tourney hopes dashed
Saint Mary’s University’s softball team dropped a pair of games Tuesday to visiting St. Thomas and had its hopes end for a spot in the conference tournament.
The Tommies, who have won five consecutive titles in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, swept the Cardinals 5-0 and 15-2.
St. Thomas has won 22 consecutive games this season, 54 in a row in the MIAC and 17 in a row over SMU.
The Cardinals finished the season 15-21, 13-9 MIAC.
“It’s a tough way to end the season,” SMU coach Jen Miller said. “We knew we had our work cut out for us today. If we wanted to make the (conference) tournament, we had to do something no one has done in almost four years, and that’s beat St. Thomas.”
Sarah Fitzgerald pitched a complete game in the opener, allowing five runs on 10 hits. She gave up two runs in the first, three in the seventh, did not walk a batter and struck out four.
SMU had just three hits off Tommies starter Maria Bye, who struck out 11.
In the second game, St. Thomas scored one run in the third, three in the fourth and eight in the fifth for the five-inning victory.
Jenny Giannini had two of SMU’s six hits in the second game. She and Mallory Betzold each drove in runs.
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