By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
CLERMONT, Fla. — It was only the third game of the season for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota fastpitch softball team, but already a trend was forming.
For the third straight game, the Cardinals saw themselves staring up from a late-game hole in their nonconference matchup against Rose-Hulman Monday morning.
Unlike Sunday, however—when the Cardinals rallied from a 7-3 deficit, only to lose to Alma 8-7 in eight innings, while also spotting Augustana a 5-0 lead in falling to the Vikings 5-1—this time around, Saint Mary's was rewarded for its late-game heroics.
Trailing Rose-Hulman 2-0, Saint Mary's scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning, and made that one-run lead stand up—thanks in part to 2 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief by
Amber Chow (West St. Paul, Minn.)—as the Cardinals grabbed their first win of the season, 3-2.
After a pair of scoreless innings, Rose-Hulman got to Saint Mary's starter
Amber Trendle (Chicago, Ill.) in the third, collecting a pair of hits—including a two-run double by Gabbi Markison—to grab a 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals, who had managed just one hit off Rose-Hulman starter Michelle Korf through the game's first four innings, got their offense rolling in the fifth.
Haley Vanourney (Marion, Iowa) laced a one-out single, and moved to second on a walk to
Justine Schultz (Winona, Minn.). After
Mia Lloyd (Minneapolis, Minn.) flew out to right field for the second out,
Paige Gudmundson (Plainview, Minn.),
Tara Nikolich (Chicago, Ill.), and
Brittney Birkhauser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) all delivered run-scoring singles to give the Cardinals the 3-2 edge.
Rose-Hulman threatened in the fifth, getting a pair of two-out singles, but Chow came on in relief to get the final out, and limit the Fightin' Engineers to just one hit over the final two innings en route to her first collegiate save.
Gudmundson led the way for the Cardinals, going 2-for-4, while Nikolich, Birkhauser, , and Vanourney accounted for Saint Mary's other three hits.
