Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — It was the little things that came back to haunt the Saint Mary's University baseball team — in a big way — Wednesday afternoon.

A failed sacrifice bunt here, a bad base-running decision there. A infield single on one hand, a check-swing double on the other … .

That was the fine line between winning and losing for the Cardinals against cross-town rival Winona State at Loughrey Field.

Unfortunately, those little things all seemed to go against SMU as the Warriors escaped with a 3-2 nonconference victory.

"This was a great baseball game for the fans to watch, but as a coach, it was a little frustrating," admitted SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team saw its overall record fall to 5-4. "We had our chances, but we didn't do the little things."

The Warriors got on the board first, scoring a single run in the bottom of the second on an infield chopper and an RBI double down the rightfield line on an check swing by Adam Gust.

SMU threatened to tie the game in the fifth as Matt Domarus (Woodbury, Minn.) led off the inning with a walk, and appeared to advvance to second on a wild pitch. Unfortunately, Domarrus rouned second too far, and Gust, the Warrior catcher, fired a perfect strike to second to pick Domarus off.

Stealing the momentum, WSU pushed their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth on back-to-back singles by Josh Maggert and Jeff Dobertin.

The Cardinals made their move in the sixth, scoring a pair of runs on a Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.) triple and an RBI groundout by Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.).

"It's a tough loss, because we had our chances to come away with a win against a very good team," said Whaley. "But to hold a team like that — a team that can hit the cover off the ball — to just three runs, that's encouraging."