Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — Less than 24 hours after scoring 23 runs on 23 hits, the Saint Mary's University baseball team managed just 11 hits and three runs Tuesday in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against St. John's at Max Molock Field.

Thanks for Matt Domarus' (Woodbury, Minn.) one-out triple in the bottom of the seventh inning, however, three runs was enough to earn the Cardinals a split with the Johnnies.

SMU, behind Domarus' triple and the six-hit pitching of Eric Williamson (St. Charles, Minn.), beat SJU 2-1 in Tuesday's opener. The Johnnies turned the tables in the nightcap, as SJU beat SMU 2-1 — handing the Cardinals their first loss in four conference games.

"That was two evenly matched teams playing good baseball," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team had opened its conference schedule with a 10-2, 13-4 sweep of Macalester on Monday. "Our pitchers did a great job, and offensively we did OK – we just didn't get the big hit when we needed it in the second game."

Domarus certainly got the big hit in Game 1, as the Cardinals rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a single run in the fifth — on an RBI single by Aaron Smolinski (White Bear Lake, Minn.) — and the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh.

Were it not for a picture-perfect throw from Smolinski in left to catcher Seth Pugh (Crystal, Minn.) in the top of the seventh to nail SJU's Alec Rolle — who was trying to score from second on a single — Domarus' late-inning heroics may not have been enough.

"That was a great play — a great throw by Aaron, and a great job by Seth blocking the plate and holding onto the ball," praised Whaley, whose team moved to 3-1 in the MIAC and 5-8 overall with the split. "And we took advantage of that in the bottom of the inning with the big hit by Matt."

It was the Johnnies who took advantage of their breaks in the second game, as SJU scored an unearned run in the third inning, then added a second run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth. SMU's lone run, meanwhile, came on an RBI single by Wilhelmy in the bottom of the fourth.

"We had our chances (in the second game)," said Whaley, noting that the Cardinals outhit SJU 5-3, and had lead-off runners on in both the fifth and seventh innings, but couldn't score. "That's baseball – sometimes you get those key hits when you need them, and sometimes you don't."