Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — Heading into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Carleton, the Saint Mary's University baseball team was stuck in the midst of an eight-game losing streak — the longest in coach Nick Whaley's eight-year tenure at SMU.

Fourteen innings later, the streak was a forgotten memory, and the Cardinals were winners of two straight.

All it took was a little home cooking.

After playing 17 straight games on the road, SMU's twinbill against the Knights was its first two home games of the season — and the Cardinals made them memorable, jumping out to a 7-2 lead and holding on for a 7-6 win in Game 1, then belting out 12 hits en route to a 10-2 win in the nightcap.

"We needed a couple of wins — we needed them badly," said Whaley, whose team moved to 2-4 in the MIAC and 5-14 overall with their first wins since a 7-6, 8-6 sweep of Wartburg on March 27. "The guys played two pretty solid ball games — we hit the ball well, got good pitching, and made the plays in the field.

I think finally playing at home helped a bit, too," continued Whaley. "It was great to not have to get off a bus and get ready to play. To be able to come out in front of our home fans … it was nice."

So were the two wins.

"The guys were starting to press a bit, and hopefully this will give them a little boost of confidence," said Whaley. "It's not like we've been playing that poorly — we've just ran into some teams who hit the ball very well."

It was the Cardinals who were hitting the ball well Saturday, as SMU banged out 23 hits, including four extra-base hits in the first game — doubles by Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.), Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) and Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.), and a triple by Cosgrove — and four more in the second – doubles by Cicalello, Cosgrove and Jose Rueda (Winona, Minn.), and a first-inning, lead-off home run by Cris Collins (Rochester, Minn.).

The Cardinals opened Game 1 with a solo run in the first, then platted three more in the third — highlighted by a two-run double by Winecke. Carleton got two runs back in the top of the fifth to make it 4-2, but SMU responded with its second three-run inning of the game — fueled by a two-run double from Cosgrove — in the bottom of the fifth to take a commanding 7-2 advantage.

Carleton made things interesting with four runs off SMU starter Aric Kittelson (Prescott, Wis.) in the sixth, but David Reiter (Elgin, Minn.) worked 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief to preserve the victory and earn his first collegiate save.

SMU left little doubt in Game 2, scoring once in the first, three times in the third, four times in the fourth and twice in the fifth en route to the lopsided win.

After Collins led off the first with his second HR of the season, SMU padded that lead to 4-0 with its three-run third, an inning that included three straight bases-loaded hit batsmen. Cosgrove's second double of the day, along with RBIs from Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) and Rueda fueled the Cardinals' four-run fourth, and RBI singles from Rob Kimlinger (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Rueda accounted for SMU's two fifth-inning runs.

Matt Popek (Eagan, Minn.) tossed six innings of four-hit ball, allowing just a sixth-inning run, to pick up his first win of the year.

"This was a good day of baseball," said Whaley. "Hopefully we can keep this going."