Saint Mary's captured two wins over Kalamazoo 10-9 and 5-1 this weekend on the road in its final MIAA series of the season - giving the team 27 wins and trumping the previous 25-win record set in 1985,
The weekend brought the Belles' record to 27-11 overall and 11-5 in conference action.
The 11 conference wins also mark a school record, two higher than the nine-win record set in 2004.
The team will leave the regular season behind with hope of succeeding in MIAA tournament play, Belles coach Erin Sullivan said.
"We really want to win that tournament [MIAA tournament] and advance to Regionals," Sullivan said. "That has been our goal all season long."
In game one, Saint Mary's withstood a furious Kalamazoo comeback to come away with a one-run lead.
Down 10-5 in the bottom of the six, Kalamazoo made a charge, scoring four runs on three hits and two crucial Saint Mary's errors.
The Hornets were unable to come all the way back, however, after Belles pitcher Bridget Grall shut them down in the bottom of the seventh.
The Belles built their lead slowly, scoring in the first, second, fourth and sixth innings and always answering when the Hornets scored.
After Kalamazoo freshman Lauren Millar homered in the third, driving in three runs and bringing the score to 5-4, Saint Mary's struck back with three runs in the fourth to go up 8-4.
Audrey Gajor and Sarah Miesle drove in a run each, and Davison scored off an error in the inning.
"We hit in clutch situations," Sullivan said. "That really helped a lot."
Saint Mary's 5, Kalamazoo 1
Seven errors by Kalamazoo gave Saint Mary's new life as the Belles won game two, 5-1.
Saint Mary's jumped out to an early lead, with catcher Martha Smid and Gajor scoring in the first.
Kalamazoo scored in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by catcher Emily Schoolmaster.
The Belles capitalized off of the Hornets' errors again in the top of the second when Smid and Davison both scored off of Kalamazoo's mistakes.
Gajor drove in an RBI to round the score out at 5-1.
Freshman pitcher Kristin Amram turned in another strong performance from the mound. Amram allowed only three hits while striking out 12.
She is now ranked 31st in Division III with a 1.09 ERA and is seventh in strikeouts with 166 strikeouts in 103 innings.
Miesle and Ashley Fusaro led the Belles from the plate, each posting a homerun in the 5-1 victory.
Note:
uSmid was named MIAA conference player of the week. She batted 11-for-16 in four conference games, scored 10 runs and drove in five RBIs with a .813 slugging percentage.
