Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team has done exactly what coach Nick Whaley was hoping they'd do this early in the season — continue to improve with each game.

Which is exactly what the Cardinals had done — until Tuesday afternoon.

The Cardinals entered Tuesday's nonconference doubleheader against Northwestern averaging more than nine hits and nearly four runs a game — and exited with just 10 hits and four runs in the two games, combined.

Northwestern pitcher Josh Peterson held SMU to one run on three hits, and the Eagles finally got to Cardinal pitching in the bottom of the seventh, scoring two runs to beat the Cardinals 2-1 in the opener.

In the nightcap, the Eagles scored a pair of runs in each of the first three innings, then topped it off with a solo run in the fourth en route to a 7-3 victory and the nonconference sweep.

"I think we took a little step backwards today," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. "The first game was a tough loss — we had (Northwestern) on the ropes and couldn't put them away. We got good pitching in the firstt game, we just didn't give him enough offensive support. It's tough to lose a game like that.

The problem was, we weren't able to put that disappointing loss behind us in the second game," Whaley added. "We kind of went through the motions for a while, and by the time we got on track, it was 7-1."

Mitchell and Peterson found themselves locked in pitchers' duel in Game 1, as the two each allowed just one hit through four innings. The Cardinals finally broke through in the top of the sixth, as Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) drew a two-out walk, and Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) delivered a run-scoring double.

After managing just their second hit of the game in the sixth, the Eagles foiled SMU's bid for a shutout, getting a one-out, RBI triple from Tom Tadych and an RBI single by Spencer Labatt off Cardinal reliever David Baker (Monticello, Minn.) to steal the win from the jaws of defeat.

SMU started quickly in the second game, plating a single run in the top of the first on Knudsen's second RBI double of the afternoon. The Eagles, however, stared even quicker, scoring twice in the first, then following that up with two more in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth.

The Cardinals plated two runs of their own in the sixth, but it was too little, too late, as SMU saw its losing streak climb to four straight.

"We're still in the learning phases — everyone is still learning what then can and cannot do," said Whaley. "It's disappointing to drop two games like this, but the good thing is, we get to get right back out there (Wednesday at UW-La Crosse)."