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DUNDAS, Minn. — For eight-and-two-thirds innings Friday evening in the opening round of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament, the Saint Mary's University baseball team was flawless …

Pitcher Eric Wiliamson (St. Charles, Minn.) was virtually untouchable, allowing just six hits, while striking out seven …

The SMU offense, fueled by Rob Kimlinger's (Lake Elmo, Minn.) 3-for-4 performance, manufactured a third-inning run, and the Cardinals' defense was air-tight in making it stand up.

For eight-and-tow-thirds innings, that is.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, SMU made its lone mistake — a fielding error by Kimlinger — and the Oles made the Cardinals pay, as Kevin Quame laced a 2-1 Wlliamson offering to deep left-center, scoring two runs and carrying St. Olaf to a 2-1` victory.

"It's a tough one to lose, but that was a great baseball game," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. "We got great pitching — we played very well."

Just not quite good enough, however.

The Cardinals got on the board in the third inning as Seth Pugh (Crystal, Minn.) led off with a single up the middle and moved to second on Eric Froistad's (North St. Paul, Minn.) sacrifice bunt. Aaron Smolinski (White Bear Lake, Minn.) reached on an infield single, moving Pugh to third, where he scored on a two-out single by Kimlinger.

And Williamson made the lead stand up — dodging a major bullet in the fourth when St. Olaf loaded the bases with one out but failed to score.

The Cardinals threatened in the top of the ninth, putting runners on second and third with nobody out, but St. Olaf pitcher Charlie Ruud got Dusty Wilhelmy (Mendota Heights, Minn.) to ground out to third, Matt Domarus (Woodbury, Minn.) to pop out to second and David McMahon (Coon Rapids, Minn.) to strike out looking.

Steve Ryan drew a one-out walk to start the Oles' game-winning, ninth-inning rally, but was forced out at second by Dan Norsten. With Matt Dean running for Norsten, Joe Hammond drilled a grounder to short that Kimlinger couldn't find the handle on, giving St. Olaf new life.

And Quame did the rest.