NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The day did not start the way Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller would have liked, but the Cardinals certainly closed out the afternoon with a bang.
 
The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning, but their comeback fell one run short, as Carleton opened the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader with a 5-4 victory.
 
In the nightcap, however, the Cardinals turned up the offensive heat, erupting for 11 runs—including at least one run in every inning but the third and seventh—en route to an 11-4 victory and a conference split.
 
Saint Mary's had the upper hand early in Game 1, getting an Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.)  RBI single in the third to take a 1-0 lead, only to have Carleton score twice in the fourth to grab its first lead of the game, 2-1.
 
The Cardinals knotted things at 2-2 on a Mia Lloyd (Minneapolis, Minn.) sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth, but again the Knights had an answer, erupting for three runs of their own in the fifth to take a 5-2 advantage.
 
Kali Aldrich (Rochester, Minn.) delivered a two-out, two-run double in the sixth to cut the deficit to one, 5-4, but the junior was stranded at second, and the Cardinals failed to score in the seventh in suffering the one-run loss.
 
Trendle and Aldrich each had two hits in the opener, while Ashley Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) went the distance in the pitcher's circle, allowing five runs—only two of which were earned—on six hits.
 
Saint Mary's wasted little time taking control in Game 2, scoring an unearned run in the first, and two more runs in the second—both scoring on a Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn.) double—for a quick, 3-0 lead.
 
Carleton made it a one-run game with two runs in its half of the third, but a four-run Cardinal fourth—highlighted by RBI singles from Betzold, Kathi Opsahl (Elk River, Minn.), and Allie Borawski (Stickney, Ill.)—gave Saint Mary's some breathing room, 7-2.
 
The two teams traded fifth-inning runs—Saint Mary's on a Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) double—before the Cardinals put the game out of reach with three more runs in the sixth, both coming on an Aldrich single.
 
Opsahl fueled the Cardinals' 13-hit offensive attack, going 4-for-5, while Urban was 3-for-4 and Aldrich finished 1-for-2 with a pair of RBIs and three runs scored. Betzold went the first five innings allowing just three runs on eight hits, with Trendle surrendering one run on four hits over the final two innings.
 
The Cardinals (5-14 MIAC, 11-24 overall) are right back in action on Saturday, traveling to Moorhead, Minn., for an 11 a.m. conference doubleheader against Concordia.