Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — All season long — in fact, for as long as Nick Whaley has been coaching the Saint Mary's University baseball team — the SMU coach has lived by a simple motto: Don't let the game get away from you, if you do that, you'll always have a chance to win.

Saturday afternoon against league-leading St. Thomas, the Cardinals never let the game get away from them — and they had more than their fair share of chances to win.

They just couldn't capitalize on those chances.

The Cardinals had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in three of the seven innings, but managed just one run — on a seventh-inning RBI single by Jose Rueda (Winona, Minn.) — in dropping Game 1 of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader to the Tommies, 6-1.

And in Game 2, SMU squandered a first-inning grand slam by Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) in falling 8-5 in eight innings.

Yet, despite the end results, Whaley had trouble feeling disappointed.

"Sure it hurts to lose, but those were two great baseball games," Whaley said. "Today we had an opportunity to go up against one of the top baseball teams around, and we battled them from start to finish.

"We put ourselves in position to win both games, we just couldn't come up with the clutch hits when we needed them."

St. Thomas jumped out to a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat of Game 1, and held that 1-0 advantage into the fourth — thanks in part to an inning-ending double play in the third that thwarted SMU's first-and-third, one-out threat.

The Tommies then put the game out of reach, picking up four hits — including a two-run single by Mike Kimlinger — and scoring four times to push the lead to 5-1. The two teams traded seventh-inning runs, SMU's on a one-out single down the right-field line by Rueda.

"We knew coming in that these games were going to be a battle, and our guys didn't back down," said Whaley, whose team dropped three of its four games on the week — splitting with Bethel (winning 11-7 and losing 18-0), then falling twice to UST. "It was a great day for baseball."

And, after the first inning of the nightcap, it looked like Game 2 would be a great day for the Cardinals.

Knudsen erased a 1-0 UST lead by belting his second home run of the week — a grand slam to deep center field — to give SMU a 4-1 advantage.

An advantage the Cardinals couldn't hang on to.

UST scoring single runs in the second, third and fourth innings to tie the game, only to have SMU regain the lead, 5-4, on a Rueda single in the bottom of the fourth. UST again tied it, 5-5, in the top of the sixth, then completed the sweep by scoring three times in the top of the eighth.

"We gave ourselves a chance, that's all you can ask," said Whaley. "These guys played two great games — against a very good team — it's pretty hard to feel disappointed."