Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — In the first game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline, the Saint Mary's University baseball team allowed nine runs – including six in the first inning — surrendered 15 hits and did not retire the Pipers in order in any of the seven innings.

And won.

In the second game against the Pipers, the Cardinals erupted for nine runs – including five in the second inning that gave them a commanding 6-0 lead — banged out 12 hits and had the luxury of three Hamline errors.

And lost.

"That was quite a display of pitching and defense, wasn't it?" joked SMU coach Nick Whaley, after his team rallied from that 6-0 first-inning deficit to win the opener 13-9, only to have the Pipers turn around and do the same thing in Game 2, scoring nine times in the sixth inning en route to a 14-9 win. "Hamline has got a very good ball club — they are on the verge of being a playoff baseball team. Down the road, getting a split against them is going to be a big deal.

"They deserved to win that second game," continued Whaley. "They never gave up, then kept battling, and that's what you have to do. We let the second game get away from us and that's what's disappointing."

Hamline tagged SMU starter Eric Williamson (St. Charles, Minn.) for six runs in the first inning of the opener, but the Cardinals matched them run-for-run and hit-for-hit, scoring six runs of their own to tie the game 6-6.

"That was a great comeback," said Whaley, who got an RBI double from Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.), a two-run double from Rob Kimlinger (Lake Elmo, Minn.), an RBI sacrifice fly from Pat Gornick (West St. Paul, Minn.) and a two-run home run from Matt Domarus (Woodbury, Minn.) in its six-run first. "It could have been very easy to just pack it in right away after (Hamline) scored those six runs. But we have talked all season about not letting the game get away from us, and that's exactly what we did — we didn't let the game get away and we just kept playing."

And playing, and playing, and playing.

The two teams traded runs in the third inning, SMU's coming on an RBI double by Dan Cosgrove (North St. Paul, Minn.), but the Cardinals broke the game open with back-to-back three-run innings in the fourth and fifth.

"We swung the bats well all day," said Whaley. "Our pitching wasn't as good as it needs to be, and we didn't play particularly well in the field, but we were always in the game — we always had a chance to win."

Even after Hamline erased a 6-0 SMU lead with two runs in the third, three in the fourth and nine in the sixth to take a 14-6 advantage.

"We had some mental breakdowns (in that sixth inning)," admitted Whaley, whose pitchers gave up seven straight hits in the sixth, while also committing a couple of errors. "Sure I'm disappointed — not necessarily with the split, that's the game of baseball — but with the way we responded at times. Had we prevented some of the runs we could have prevented (in the sixth), we would have had the tying or winning run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh.

"There were definitely a lot of positives, but there were also a lot of things we need to improve on," Whaley continued. "Hopefully the guys learn a thing a two from these games."

Like, the fact that former Yankee great Yogi Berra wasn't kidding when he said, "It's never over til it's over."