Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — Nick Whaley has seen a lot of strange things during his 10 years as the Saint Mary's University baseball coach.

But this year has added a few new wrinkles.

There was the 10-run, fourth inning in a season-opening loss to Wartburg … . The 21-run, 24-hit assault in a loss to St. Olaf … . Not to mention the back-to-back losses to Augsburg in which SMU held the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. … Or the nearly one-hour long nine-run Tommie fifth inning in an 11-9 loss to St. Thomas. … And how about the Cardinals rallying from an 8-0 deficit to take a 10-8 lead, only to fall 11-10 to Carleton.

It's been a season of oddities.

But nothing could compare to Game 2 Saturday afternoon.

After managing just two runs and two hits in dropping game one of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader to Gustavus, 13-2, the Cardinals rallied from a 5-1 deficit with three runs in the fifth and another in the bottom of the seventh to send Game 2 into extra innings.

And that's where it gets really strange — were it any other year but this one.

With the score still tied in the top of the ninth, Pat Siering reaches on a one-out error, bringing Tony Konicek to the plate. With first base open, Whaley signals to intentionally walk Konicek — who had been feasting on SMU pitching, going 4-for-7 with two doubles, three runs scored and three RBIs. Matt Wilgenbusch's (Rickardsville, Iowa) second offer, however, got a little too close and Konicek reached out and laced an RBI triple, fueling a four-run ninth inning and leading GAC to a 9-5 Game 2 win.,

"It's a tough way to lose a game, but in reality — against a team that is as strong offensive as Gustavus is — we really needed to win that game when we tied it in the seventh," said Whaley. "The more chances you give a team like that, the more the likelihood is that they are going to score — and score more than once.

"Unfortunately, what gets lost in a game with such a strange ending, is that we battled back and did what we had to do to tie it in the seventh," added Whaley, whose team had won three of its last four entering Saturday's game — splitting against Carleton last Monday, then picking up their first MIAC sweep since late in the 2005 season with an 8-5, 12-7 sweep of Macalester Wednesday. "After a rough first inning, our pitchers gave us a chance to win. Jason (Bujold) pitched extremely well in relief, and defensively, we played pretty well."

Gustavus jumped on SMU starter David Baker (Monticello, Minn.) for thee first-inning runs in Game 2, and, after trading second-inning runs, the Cardinals' offense finally came to life, scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth — two coming on a double by Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) — to cut the lead to 5-4. SMU then pulled even in the bottom of the seventh, as Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.,) singled, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a single by Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.).

As has been the case far too often, the Cardinals dug themselves an early hole in the opener, as Gustavus delivered six hits and scored four of its five first-inning runs before SMU recorded the first out of the game. GAC pushed that advantage to 12-0 with a seven-run third, and the Cardinals never recovered, managing just a Joe Krause (St. James, Minn.) single in the third and a Pete Bissen (Fairmont, Minn.) single in the seventh off GAC pitching.

"I'm proud of the way this team never throws in the towel," said Whaley. "We lose the first game 13-2, and then turn around and give up three runs in the first inning of the second game. But they never stopped played — they just kept battling and battling.

"Resiliency is a good word to describe this team — they never stop playing."