Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — Like his fellow senior teammates, Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) has enjoyed a storybook baseball career at Saint Mary's University.

And Sunday afternoon, in his final Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, and his final appearance in front of the home crowd at Max Molock Field, Rink and Co. wrote the picture-perfect final chapter, as SMU rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning — including a walk-off RBI single by Rink — to beat St. Olaf 4-3.

There were no happy endings in the nightcap, however, as St. Olaf scored early — and often — in blanking the Cardinals 11-0 to earn the split.

"That first game was great — it was an exciting baseball game all the way around," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. whose team snapped a two-game losing streak with their sixth one-run victory of the season. "Our seniors have been the leaders of this team all season, so it really was only fitting that they took charge and got the job done in the seventh."

Trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, senior Jose Rueda (Winona, Minn.) and pinch-hitter Brandon Verbout (Rochester, Minn.) both reached on errors and Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) laid down a perfect drag bunt down the third-base line to load the bases. After Winecke was struck out looking, senior Ryan Majerus (St. Charles, Minn.) lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Rueda, and Rink followed with his game-winning RBI single down the left-field line.

"It was great to see the seniors all contribute like they did," said Whaley, who got five solid innings from senior starter Jesse Pedersen (St. Charles, Minn., not to mention a clutch, two-out single from Pat Jacobsen (Stillwater, Minn.) that scored SMU's first run in the fifth inning. "Jesse pitched great (9 hits, two earned runs, 2 Ks), Jake had a big hit, Jose got us started (in the seventh) and Ryan and Matt came through in the end.

"It was a perfect ending."

To Game 1, that is.

"We were not able to transition from Game 1 to Game 2," continued Whaley, whose team fell behind 2-0 after the first inning of Game 2, then gave up two more runs in the second and fourth, before St. Olaf broke the game open with a four-run fifth. "We were not mentally — or physically — ready for that second game, and it showed."

St. Olaf starter Eric Tobias limited the Cardinals to just two hits, both by Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) — one-out doubles in both the first and sixth innings — while walking three and striking out five.

"That doubleheader pretty much summed up our whole season thus far," said Whaley, whose team — which moved to 8-12 in the MIAC and 16-14 overall — closes out its season on Tuesday, traveling to Winona State for a 6 p.m., nine-inning nonconference game. "We come out and scratch and claw and find a way to win, and then struggle in the second game.

"We've done a lot of very good things this year — and we're looking forward to (Tuesday's game vs. Winona State). Hopefully we can go in there and really tear it up."