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Saint Mary's Cardinals   1-17 MIAC / 7-27 Overall		St. Thomas Tommies    12-4 MIAC / 23-8 Overall

Live In-Game Statistics / Senior Salute / GameDay Online / Media Notebook

Last Action: The Cardinals were swept by Concordia in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday, surrendering a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning in losing the opener 6-5, then giving up six first-inning runs in falling 13-2 in the nightcap. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, stepped out of conference play Tuesday, beating the University of Minnesota to snap a 16-game losing streak against the Gophers.

Last Meeting: A trio of Cardinal hurlers held the high-powered Tommies — who were coming off a sweep of St. Olaf in which they'd scored 27 runs — to just five runs in the opener of their MIAC DH vs. UST a year ago. Six pitchers once again hold the Tommies below their season-high average, scattering 13 hits and allowing just nine runs. It was not enough, however, as UST came away with 5-0 and 9-3 victories.

Saint Mary's Cardinal Notes: SMU's Game 1 loss to Concordia marked the fourth time in the teams' last six meetings that the game was decided in a team's final at-bat. … Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.), John Swenson (Eagan, Minn.), Tyler Kruse (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.) all had two hits in the opener vs. Concordia, while Alex Schmidt (La Crosse, Wis.) went 3-for-3 to account for three of the team's seven Game 2 hits. It was Schmidt's second career three-hit game, the first coming vs. Dickinson College on March 12. … Ryan, who went 7-for-9 vs. Finlandia on Thursday — grounding out in his first and last at-bats, while stringing together seven straight hits in between — has gone 10-for-17 in the Cardinals' last two doubleheaders. … The Cardinals' 10-0, 16-0 sweep of Finlandia was a historic performance on a number of different levels: SMU's 16 Game 2 runs were the most since the Cardinals plated 17 in a 17-4 win over Carleton on April 15, 2007; The last time SMU shut out an opponent was a 6-0 victory over Framingham State on March 17, 2007; The last time the Cardinals won back-to-back games via shutout was 2003, when SMU beat UW-Platteville 8-0 on March 22, then blanked Carleton 6-0 the following day; The last time SMU swept a doubleheader without giving up a run was April 24, 2001, when the Cardinals put up a pair of 5-0 wins vs. Carleton; Finlandia's two hits in Game 1 were the fewest allowed by Cardinal pitchers since David Baker and #David Dahlstrom combined on a one-hit shutout in a 6-0 win vs. Framingham State on March 17, 2007; The six hits allowed by SMU in Thursday's DH were the fewest since holding Carleton to three hits in both ends of a conference twinbill on April 29, 2001. …  SMU finished its doubleheader vs. Finlandia with 33 hits — including a season-high 20 in Game 2. It was the most hits in a game since SMU banged out 22 in a 15-5 win over Carleton a year ago. … Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) posted his first collegiate three-hit game vs. the Lions in Game 2, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs. … Swenson also posted his first collegiate three-hit game with a 3-for-5 Game 2 effort, while also scoring three times. … Kruse delivered his team-leading fourth triple — and 11th extra-base hit — vs. Finlandia. In his first three seasons as a Cardinal, Kruse did not have an extra base hit. … Kruse had at least one hit in each game vs. Concordia to extend his career-best hitting streak to 11 straight. … Zach Olberding (Maplewood, Minn.) had a streak of five straight at-bats with a hit, going 3-for-3 in Game 2 vs. St. Olaf Tuesday, then going 2-for-2 in Game 1 vs. Finlandia. Olberding grounded out in his first at-bat in Game 2 Thursday, but did finish 1-for-3 and has now hit safely in 25 of the 30 games he's appeared in this season. … With his 2-for-4 Game 1 effort vs. Concordia, Ryan now leads the team with 12 multiple-hit games,while Olberding and Kruse are the team leaders with five multiple-RBI games each. …  Jack Dwyer (Minneapolis, Minn.), who posted his first collegiate pitching win in Game 2 vs. Bethel last week, posted win No. 2 vs. Finlandia, throwing six innings of one-hit ball, while striking out a career-high seven. … With his two-run home run in the sixth inning of Game 1 vs. Bethel on April 18, Dwyer became the fifth SMU player to hit his first collegiate home run this season. Kruse (vs. Gustavus), Ryan Archambault (Faribault, Minn. / vs. Augsburg), Olberding (vs. Monmouth), and Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn. / vs. Monmouth) are the other four. All nine of SMU's home runs have been hit by players with a combined total of zero home runs prior to this season. … Olberding leads the team in batting average (.402), home runs (3), RBIs (19), and slugging percentage (.554). …  Ryan leads the team in hits (40), at-bats (115) and stolen bases (14). … The Cardinals have stolen 35 bases this season. … Andy Pass (Prescott, Wis.) leads the team in complete games (2), innings pitched (33.2) and strikeouts (24). … SMU has surrendered 45 first-inning runs — including five vs. St. Olaf last Tuesday and six in Game 2 vs. Concordia on Saturday — and is 1-16 when its opponent scores in the first inning. … SMU has scored six or more runs in all seven of its wins. The Cardinals are 1-23 when being held to five runs or less.

St. Thomas Tommie Notes: St. Thomas enters today's DH looking to secure an unprecedented seventh consecutive MIAC baseball title. The Tommies start the final week of the conference season with a two-game lead on St. Olaf and Carleton and close the MIAC portion of the schedule with doubleheaders at St. Mary's and at home against Gustavus. … With six regular-season games left, and at least two MIAC playoff games expected, the 23-8 Tommies are trying to reach 30 wins for the 13th time in 14 seasons. St. Thomas is looking to reach the NCAA playoffs for the 14th time in the 15-year era of head coach Dennis Denning. The Tommie coach recently surpassed 500 wins at UST (504-152). That includes a 271-57 (.826) record in all games vs. MIAC foes. The Tommies have won either the MIAC regular-season or playoff championship in each of the last 13 seasons. … The Tommies have climbed to the No. 7 ranking in the ABCA Division III national poll. They have won 22 of their last 28 games. Seven of their eight losses have come by one or two runs. They are 6-4 against traditional region powers St. Scholastica, UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh and St. Olaf and 17-4 against all others. … The Tommies are 20-1 when they outhit opponents and 18-2 when they score five or more runs. They have allowed just 106 runs in 31 games (3.4 rpg). … UST led NCAA Division III in fielding percentage last season at .975 and rank near the top again. In 31 games they have just one outfield error and 19 errors by infielders. … Senior Louie Salmen has converted 88 consecutive defensive chances without an error at second base. Salmen has an eight-game hitting streak to raise his average to .364. …The Tommies are batting .350 as a team with 12 different starters or co-starters hitting .293 or better. Brian Schmitz leads in batting average (.408), RBI (26), doubles (10) and HRs (two). Roy Larson (.402) has a team-best 39 hits and 11 multi-hit games.