And, like a fine bottle of wine, the Cardinal right-hander has gotten better with age.

In an April 21 start against Saint John's, Ferschweiler scattered eight hits in leading SMU to a 5-3 victory.

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Six days later, against third-ranked St. Thomas, Ferschweiler retired the first 13 batters he faced and tossed his first collegiate one-hitter, only to have three SMU errors come back to haunt him in a 3-0 loss to the Tommies.

And in his final collegiate start on Thursday, Ferschweiler was once again on top of his game, throwing his third straight complete game — limiting Concordia to five hits.

Unfortunately, like the St. Thomas outing a week ago, SMU miscues overshadowed the senior's efforts, as the Cardinals committed three errors — including one in the first that ignited the Cobbers' three-run opening inning — in falling to Concordia 5-3 in Game 1 of their conference twinbill.

Andrew Ruf (Chippewa Fall, Wis.) could certainly sympathize with Ferschweiler, as the Cardinal sophomore also was a complete-game, hard-luck loser, giving up a two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning — one of just three hits he allowed all afternoon — as Concordia completed the sweep with a 4-1 victory in Game 2.

“It's tough,” said SMU coach Nick Winecke. “I thought we played pretty well all day, but they made the most of their opportunities in the first game, and got a huge hit in a big situation in Game 2, and that was the difference.

“We made too many mistakes defensively (in the opener) — you take away those three errors, and it's a different ball game,” Winecke added. “And (the Cobbers) came up with a real clutch hit to beat us in the second.”

The Cobbers got more hits off Ferschweiler in the first inning of Game 1 — two — than St. Thomas got in seven innings against the Cardinal ace, as Concordia parlayed two hits and an SMU error into three first-inning runs to take a 3-0 advantage.

Concordia took advantage of SMU's second error of the afternoon to score another unearned run in the third to push its lead to 4-0, before the Cardinals' bats finally came to life. SMU plate its first run in the fourth, then got an RBI double from Chris Bogie (St. Paul, Minn.) and a run-scoring single from Jake Lechner (Shoreview, Minn.) in the fifth to cut the Cobbers' lead to one, 4-3.

The Cobbers regained their two-run lead with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth, and Concordia reliever Ryan Johnson set the Cardinals down in order in the top of the seventh to seal the Concordia win.

Ruf and Concordia hurler Andrew Skow-Anderson were locked in a pitcher's duel through 5 ½ innings, as Ruf had held the Cobbers to one run on one hit, while Skow-Anderson had limited SMU to just three hits — including two in the top of the sixth when SMU scored its only run.

Lechner delivered a one-out double off the top of the fence in the top of the sixth, and moved to third on an infield single by Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.). Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) then completed a perfect squeeze bunt, scoring Lechner with the game-tying run.

Concordia opened its half of the sixth with a lead-off single by Michael Carlson, who then stole second. After getting Nick Lewis to fly out to center, Ruf intentionally walked Nate Haase to get to Jared Johnson, who flied out to left for the second out. Ruf fell behind in the count 3-1 to Tony Emmerich, and the Cobber junior made him pay, launching a three-run home run over the fence in left-center field to seal the Game 2 victory.

“It's a tough way to lose a ball game,” said Winecke of the Game 2 loss. “Our pitchers did a great job — Brett and Andrew both pitched extremely well — we just weren't able to come up with enough offensive support for them.”

The Cardinals, who fall to 4-14 in the MIAC and 12-26 overall, close out their 2010 schedule at home on Sunday, playing host to Macalester in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.