Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

DECORAH, Iowa — For Nick Whaley and the Saint Mary's University baseball team, it was worth the wait.

After dropping their last seven straight game, Whaley vowed that it was only a matter of time before his Cardinals would break out — and good things would happen.

Thursday was that day.

The Cardinals erupted for five runs in the top of the seventh inning, then held off a late Luther charge to beat the Norse 7-4 in the opener of their nonconference doubleheader. In the nightcap, it was more late-game heroics for the Cardinals, as Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) drove in the game-tying run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh and drove in one of SMU's two eighth-inning runs as Saint Mary's completed the sweep with a 6-4, eight-inning win.

"It was a great day," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. "Just to see the guys get rewarded for their efforts was great. I've been telling them for a while that we weren't that far away, we just needed to find a way to put it all together.

"And today, we did just that — we put it all together."

The two teams traded single runs through the first six innings of the opener, as SMU scored in the second and fourth, while Luther responded with solo runs in the third and sixth.

Then came the seventh — a very wild seventh at that.

The Cardinals sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the seventh — including the first seven reaching base before the first out was made — as SMU jumped to a 7-2 lead. Luther threatened, scoring a pair of runs on a one-out single, before Jason Bujold (Roseville, Minn.) came on in relief to get the final outs — and preserve the elusive, streak-snapping win.

"Getting those (five) runs in the seventh (of the first game) was a huge relief — it was almost like a huge weight was lifted off everyone's shoulders," said Whaley. "We needed an inning like that more than anything."

The Cardinals jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the fifth on a two-run double by Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) and a Luther error, but the Norse answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Luther grabbed a 4-3 lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but again SMU answered, getting Black's sacrifice fly in the seventh and two runs in the eighth to complete the sweep — the Cardinals' first doubleheader sweep of the season.

"Despite what our record is, we have been getting better every day, and today just proves that," said Whaley. "We had good at-bats, we got some big hits in clutch situations, we got good pitching … it was just a great day."