Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — After being involved in five-straight one-run ball games — including a classic 4-3, 11-inning victory over Concordia in the first game of Sunday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader — the Saint Mary's University baseball team found out what it was like to play in a game decided by a whopping three runs in Sunday's Game 2.

Unfortunately, it was the Cobbers who had the three extra runs, as Concordia earned a split of their conference twinbill with a 5-2 win.

"It's disappointing in that we had an opportunity to come away with two wins against a very good baseball team," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose Cardinals have now split their last three MIAC doubleheaders — including back-to-back 2-1 games vs. St. John's last Tuesday and a 1-0 loss/5-4 win vs. Hamline on Saturday. "That first game was classic baseball — good pitching, good fielding … it was 11 innings of great baseball.

"In the second game, we made way too many mistakes, and it cost us."

The Cardinals did not take their first lead in Game 1 until David McMahon's (Coon Rapids, Minn.) game-winning RBI single with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Concordia opened the scoring with a single run in the top of the second, but SMU tied it one Tony Cicalello's (St. Paul, Minn.) RBI single in the bottom of the third. The two teams traded runs in both the sixth and 10th innings – SMU's sixth-inning run coming on a Matt Rink Matt Rink (Winona, Minn.) RBI double, and the Cardinals' 10th-inning run coming on Jose Rueda's (Winona, Minn.) first collegiate hit, a smash off the glove of Concordia third baseman Derek Dormanen.

Chuck Wright (Winona, Minn.), SMU's fourth pitcher of the afternoon, set the Cobbers down in the top of the 11th, and McMahon delivered his game-winning blow in the bottom half.

After banging out 15 hits en route to the Game 1 win, however, the Cardinals' bats fell silent in the nightcap, as Concordia starter Jeremy Hinderks tossed a complete-game two-hitter, giving up both SMU runs on fifth-inning groundouts.

"We finally got some clutch hitting (in the first game), but we couldn't keep that going in the second," admitted Whaley. "We had runners on base — we had bases loaded with nobody out in the fifth and we couldn't get the ball out of the infield. Concordia's got a very good team, and to get that first win was huge, but we letdown a bit in that second game and let the sweep slip through our fingers."