Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Scoring 17 runs in a 17-4 win over Carleton Monday was nice.

Scoring a combined 20 runs against Macalester, however, was twice as nice.

The Cardinals, down to their last out, scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning — three on a home run by Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) — to beat the Scots 8-5 in the opener. SMU then erupted for 12 Game 2 runs to complete the sweep — the Cardinals' first doubleheader sweep since a 4-3, 6-0 sweep of Framingham State on March 17 — with a 12-7 victory.

"It's been a long time since we've had a (conference sweep)," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team's last MIAC sweep came on May 2, 2005, when the Cardinals beat Augsburg 3-2, 6-2. "I've said for a couple of weeks now that this team just keeps getting better every day.

"And today was a perfect example of that — they never let down, they just kept battling and got the two wins."

But it wasn't easy — not by a long shot.

Fresh off their dramatic, come-from-behind Game 1 win, the Cardinals appeared in complete control in Game 2, jumping out to a 12-6 lead heading into the seventh inning. A dropped third strike, followed by back-to-back singles and an SMU error pulled Macalester within five, 12-7, with the bases were still loaded, and the Scots' Adam Wedwick — who had already homered twice in the game — at the plate.

The Scots' best hitter, however, was no match for SMU pitcher David Baker's (Monticello, Minn.) best, as the Cardinal freshman struck out Wedwick — and Chris Papalia and John Simkins before that — to save the Saint Mary's victory.

"It got a little hairy there (in the seventh inning), but David did a great job of pitching out of the jam — it really would have been tough to let a seventh-inning lead slip away again," said Whaley, whose Cardinals gave up runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in losing back-to-back games to Augsburg last week, "Today was one of those days when we did just enough to win. Our pitching wasn't great, we weren't flawless in the field, but we were good enough.

"And," Whaley quickly added. "We came up with a lot of clutch hits."

Macalester jumped out to a 4-1 lead after four innings in the opener, before the Cardinals came up with clutch hit No. 1 — a two-run single by Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.) in SMU's three-run fifth that tied the game 4-4.

The Scots regained the lead with a single run in the bottom of the sixth, setting up yet another clutch-hit opportunity for the Cardinals in the seventh. With two out and runners on first and third, Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) singled to tie the game and Knudsen followed with his three-run, game-winning home run.

SMU scored early — and often — in the second game, with the Scots matching them run-for-run. The Scots held another 5-4 advantage, this one after three innings, before the Cardinals posted back-to-back four-run innings in the fourth and fifth — Ryan's two-run single highlighting the fourth inning outburst, while Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.) delivered a two-run single in the fifth — to take a 12-5 advantage.

"I can't say enough about the way these guys have battled all season long," said Whaley. "We've been so close, so many times over the past couple of weeks, it's nice to finally have these guys rewarded for their efforts."