Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It was an odd start to the season for hte Saint Mary's University baseball team.

In the first, third and fifth innings, Cardinal pitchers were virtually untouchable, holding Wartburg scoreless on just one.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, there was nothing wrong with the Knights' bats in the even innings, as Wartburg scored six runs in the second inning and 10 more in the fourth, en route to a 16-1 victory over SMU in the first game of their nonconference doubleheader at the HHH Metrodome.

There was no even-numbered onslaught for the Knights in Game 2 – in fact, there were few Wartburg runs at all.

After their 16-run Game 1 outburst, the Knights managed just three runs off three Cardinal pitchers in Game 2 — and three runs was more than enough.

Wartburg scored single runs in the first, fifth and sixth innings — and held the Cardinals to a lone run in the fourth — as the Knights completed the sweep with a 3-1 victory.

After watching the Knights parlay five doubles and a triple— including a pair of bases-loaded two-baggers — into 16 runs to take a 16-0 lead in Game 1, the Cardinals finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, as Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) singled, Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) doubled and Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) drove in Johnson with a sacrifice fly to left.

SMU threatened again in the sixth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Wartburg pitcher Billy Schmitt struck out the next three batters he faced to end the inning.

SMU pitcher Mike Mitchell (Mound, Minn.) cooled off the Knights' bats in the nightcap, hokding Wartburg to four hits — and a first-inning run — in 4.1 innings. SMU tied the game in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by David Krieger (Mendota Heights, Minn.), but Wartburg took the lead again with a run in the fifth, then iced it with another run in the sixth.