Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — All season long, an inning here or an inning there has proved costly for the Saint Mary's University baseball team.

It wasn't an inning that cost the Cardinals Thursday afternoon in their nonconference game against cross-town rival Winona State — it was an out.

Make that two outs.

The Warriors scored four of their five runs — two in the third and two in the fifth — with two outs, as WSU dropped the Cardinals 5-1 in a game shortened to seven innings due to rain.

"Winona State is such a good hitting club, you can't give them anything," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. "We had the opportunity (to get the third out) in both innings but didn't make the plays. You can't give a team like Winona State extra outs — and that's just what we did."

It didn't help that the Cardinals were held to just one hit — a Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) single — either.

"We got good pitching, we just didn't give our pitchers any offensive support," said Whaley, who got four solid innings (2 earned runs on five hits) from David Reiter (Elgin, Minn.) — who was making his first appearance of the season after battling shoulder problems through most of the early spring. "David pitched great, he did everything we could ask of him — we just didn't give him any help."

After striking out the first two batters he faced in the third, Winona State finally got to Reiter, getting an infield single from Josh Maggert, a double from Joe Magee and a two-run triple from Reggie Stevens.

It was more of the same in the fifth, as SMU reliever Mike Mitchell (Mound, Minn.) gave up a one-out, RBI double to Maggert, then got Magee to ground out to first. But before he could record the final out, he hit Stevens and surrendered a two-run double to Brian Menard.

"We've got to find a way to get our offense on track," said Whaley, whose team's lone run in the sixth came without the benefit of a hit, as Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) walked, moved to second when Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) was hit by a pitch, advanced to third when Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) walked to load the bases, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.). "Winona State is a good ball club, but you aren't going to be anybody getting just one hit.

"We played a solid game, we've just got to do a better job of putting the ball in the play."