Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

WINONA, Minn. — Heading into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline, Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Whaley had watched his team be tied, or leading heading into the seventh inning five times — only to come up empty each time.

Why should Saturday be any different?

It was — and, it wasn't.

With the Cardinals clinging to a one-run, 4-3 advantage in the top of the seventh in Game 1, SMU starter David Baker (Monticello, Minn.) gave up a one-out walk to the PIpers' Sam Wiener — and Whaley must have been thinking, "Oh, no, here we go again."

Instead, Baker induced a pair of ground ball outs to preserve SMU's 4-3 Game 1 victory.

In the nightcap, the Cardinals once again found themselves in a seventh-inning, 3-3, nailbiter.

And, for the second straight time, the Pipers put a runner on with one out, as Dan Kaczrowski doubled to left — and, again, Whaley must have been thinking, "Oh, no, here we go again."

Unfortunately, this time, his worst fears were again realized, as Josh Roiger belted a two-out, three-run home run, to lift the Pipers to the 6-3 victory, and the conference split at Max Molock Field.

"It's a tough way to lose a ball game, especially when your team plays as well as we did," said Whaley, whose Cardinals did snap a four-game losing streak with their Game 1 victory. "We seem to be snake-bit when it comes to holding leads late in the game. It was great to see David (Baker) work himself out of that jam in the seventh in the first game — that was a win these guys deserved.

"And in the second game, we had our chances, we just made one bad pitch, and (Hamline) made us pay for it," continued Whaley. "Hamline's contending for a playoff spot, so for us to take them to the limit twice — and come away with one of two — I'm pretty happy about that."

The Cardinals gave Baker an early 2-0 lead, scoring a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning, but the Pipers responded with two runs of their own in the top of the second to knot the game at 2-2. The two teams traded third-inning runs, before SMU took the lead for good on an sacrifice fly by Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) in the bottom of the fifth.

Hamline drew first blood in the nightcap, scoring once in the top of the third, before SMU erupted for three runs in the bottom of the fourth to grab a 3-1 advantage. The PIpers plated single runs in the fifth and sixth to tie the game — and set up Roiger's seventh-inning heroics.

"The toughest part of today is the way that second game ended," said Whaley, whose team closes out its season on Wednesday, playing host to Concordia in a conference doubleheader. "That was two exciting college baseball games. These guys battled from the first pitch of the first game, to the last pitch of the second — and while it's disappointing to lose a game like that, the guys should feel good about the way they played."