WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball, coming off a pair of road Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference losses at Hamline on Sunday, return home Tuesday, playing host to league-leading and nationally ranked St. Thomas in a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.
The Teams:
Saint Mary's Cardinals: 4-10 MIAC / 11-22 Overall
St. Thomas Tommies: 8-4 MIAC / 21-5 Overall
GameDay Live On The Web:
Last Action:
The Cardinals scored first in both of their MIAC games against Hamline on Sunday, but could not hold those early leads, as the Pipers handed SMU a
5-2 loss in Game 1, and a
5-4, 11-inning setback in the nightcap at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, Minn. St. Thomas, meanwhile, has been off since Wednesday, when the Tommies split with Augsburg in their conference twinbill. UST won Game 1,
7-6, but dropped Game 2,
1-0, in Minneapolis, Minn.
Last Meeting — April 29, 2009:
The Cardinals, who dropped the opener of their final twinbill of the season vs. UST
5-0, entered their final at-bat trailing the seventh-ranked Tommies 4-2. When the inning finally ended — with a
Brandon Haugh walk-off single — the Cardinals had scored three runs to shock UST
5-4 and earn the conference split at Max Molock Field.
Saint Mary's Cardinals Around The Horn:
Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn.) was a one-man wrecking crew in the Cardinals' four games last week, hitting .438 (7-for-16) with a double, home run and six RBIs. … In his last eight games, Swanson has now collected 13 hits in 31 at-bats (.419) with two doubles, nine RBIs, seven runs scored and his team-leading third home run. …
Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) also enjoyed a solid week last week, hitting .385 (5-for-13) with his first collegiate home run and two runs scored. … Swanson now leads the team with a .337 batting average and is one of five Cardinals hitting .300 or better. Swanson also boasts team highs in hits (35), home runs (3), total bases (52) and slugging percentage (.500). … Swanson collected his team-leading 12th multiple-hit game with his 2-for-5 effort in Game 2 vs. Hamline Sunday, while
Ryan Archambault (Faribault, Minn.) recorded his team-high eighth multiple-RBI game with two RBIs in Game 2 vs. the Pipers Sunday. … Swanson, who put together the season's longest hitting streak — 11 games — earlier this season, enters today's DH vs. St. Thomas having hit safely in five straight games.
Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.), meanwhile, had his season-high nine-game hitting streak snapped in Game 2 Sunday. … Ryan has had at least one hit in 22 of the team's 33 games, while reaching base safely in 27 of 33 contests. …
Andrew Warren (Stillwater, Minn.) boasts a team-best 10 doubles, while Ryan is the team's leader in at-bats (118), runs (24), and stolen bases (15-for-15). … Ryan and Warren are the only two Cardinals to have started all 33 games this season. Ryan also extended his consecutive starts streak to 132 with two starts vs. Hamline Sunday. …
Brett Ferschweiler (Rochester, Minn.) collected his team-leading third complete game last Wednesday vs. Saint John's, allowing three earned runs on 11 hits in SMU's 6-4 Game 1 victory. Ferschweiler also leads the squad in wins (3), innings pitched (36.0), and strikeouts (23). … The Cardinals erupted for a season-high seven third-inning runs in beating Gustavus 10-3 in the first game of their MIAC doubleheader on April 10. … With their Game 1 win over Saint John's Wednesday, SMU picked up its 11th win of the season, giving the Cardinals their most wins since 2005, when they finished 16-15. … Sunday's 11-inning loss to Hamline was the fourth extra-inning game of the season for the Cardinals — and the longest game since beating St. Olaf 3-2 on April 23, 2003. … The Cardinals have won more games (7) when their opponent scores first than they have when they score the game's first run (4). … SMU is 9-1 when leading after six innings, but 0-19 when trailing heading into the seventh inning.
St. Thomas Tommies Around The Horn:
St. Thomas goes into the final two weeks of the regular season in a three-way tie for the MIAC lead. The Tommies are trying to become the first program ever to win eight consecutive conference baseball championships. … UST is ranked third nationally after winning the 2009 NCAA Division III national championship. Four of its five season losses have come by one run, including a 5-4, extra-inning Metrodome loss to NCAA Division I Minnesota. … UST led Division III in fielding percentage in 2008 and 2009, but have been hurt by fielding breakdowns this season and enter today's DH with a mediocre .964 fielding percentage. … St. Thomas leads NCAA Division III in earned-run-average at 2.59 and has allowed just six home runs in 26 games. Matt Nelson, who pitched on junior varsity before this season, is 4-0 with an 0.86 ERA. … Matt Schuld is 25-5 on the mound in his career and needs two wins to tie the school record for career victories. … Brandon Stone has already tied the school record for season saves with five. … The Tommies are batting .350 as a team, with four players batting over .400, led by Drew Cremisino (.471, six-game hitting streak) and Tayler Rahm (.442). Rahm has 14 multi-hit games and leads the team in hits (35), triples (5), RBIs (34) and slugging percentage (.688). … The Tommies left 13 runners on base and had a runner picked off in last week's 1-0 loss to Augsburg that forced them to take a split on the twinbill.
