Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — The last time the Saint Mary's University baseball team defeated St. Thomas, Scott Morrison laced a two-out, two-run home run — his second of the game — in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Cardinals to a 6-5 walk-off victory in 2001.

Since then, the Tommies have owned SMU, carrying a 11-game winning streak vs. the Cardinals into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Loughrey Field on the Winona State University campus.

After four innings, it didn't look like the Cardinals would need any late-game heroics to put an end to UST's dominance, as SMU opened Game 1 with back-to-back two-run innings, then added three more in the fourth to take what appeared to be a commanding 7-2 advantage.

Then came the fifth inning — and there went the Cardinals' dreams of a streak-snapping victory.

UST erupted for nine runs in the top of the fifth inning, and the Cardinals never recovered, falling 11-9 in the opener and then dropping a 12-4 decision in the nightcap.

"We haven't done a very good job of hanging on to leads of late," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team saw a one-run seventh inning lead disappear in dropping a 4-3, eight-inning decision in Game 1 vs. Augsburg on Friday, then gave up a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in dropping the nightcap to the Auggies, 3-2. "We put ourselves in position to win twice (on Friday) and couldn't get the job done, and then we couldn't hold a 7-2 lead (in Game 1) today. That's frustrating.

"We're playing well enough to win, we just can't seem to find a way to get the job done."

The Cardinals scored a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first in the opener, then added two more runs in the second on a two-run double by Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.). Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.) pushed the Cardinals' lead to 7-2 with a three-run double to right in the fourth.

That, however, was the last time the Cardinals would lead, as UST used eight hits and a pair of SMU errors to score its nine fifth-inning runs — and the Tommies never looked back.

"It was bounce-back day for us," said Whaley. "We knew how important it was for us to bounce back from two disappointing losses (on Friday), and we did that. We had to bounce back from a tough, tough inning, and we did that (scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut UST's Game 1 lead to 11-9).

"And in the second game, we had to bounce back again — and we did," continued Whaley, whose team fell behind 6-1 in the second game, only to plate three sixth-inning runs to cut the lead to 6-4. "We did so many good things — things that you don't see when the final scores are 11-9 and 12-4.

"It just would be nice if we could catch a break or two and turn these solid performances into a win or two."