Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WAVERLY, Iowa — With his team struggling to a 1-6 record to start the season, Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Whaley must have been wondering just how good his Cardinals could be.

Saturday afternoon, he found out.

Squaring off against Wartburg, the third-ranked team in the nation, the Cardinals — fueled by a four-run seventh inning — picked up a 5-2 victory in the second game of the nonconference doubleheader and posted a hard-earned split.

"This team really showed me a lot today," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team was within three outs of a Game 1 victory, but gave up single runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings in falling 5-4. "Wartburg is a very good team and we came out and went toe-to-toe with them for 16 innings.

"Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come."

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Game 1, but the Knights responded with a pair of runs in the third and another in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead into the top of the seventh. Down to their final three outs, the Cardinals responded, getting a single run in the seventh and another in the eighth, but their defense couldn't make it stick as the Knights scored once in each of their last two at-bats to seal the win.

Wartburg grabbed the early lead in Game 2, holding a 2-1 edge into the top of the seventh — when the Cardinals once again worked their late-inning magic.

And this time they were rewarded for it, as Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) delivered a two-run single and Mark Pederson (Lexington, Minn.) added another RBI single to fuel the win.

"This team is still learning what it takes to win," said Whaley. "We put ourselves in position to win two and couldn't quite get the job done. But to play the way we did, against the No. 3 team in the country, and to come away with a split, I'm happy with that."