Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Six games into their spring trip, Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Winecke must be wondering when his Cardinals are going to catch a break.

Either than, or his squad is the unluckiest team on the planet.

The Cardinals were poised to win their first two games of the young season on Thursday, only to have victory snatched away from them both times, as Presentation scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning to erase a 5-2 SMU lead en route to a 7-5 win in the opener, then scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch during an intentional walk in an 8-7, eight-inning victory.

“It's disappointing — we put ourselves in position to come away with two wins today and couldn't get the job done,” said Winecke. “We let that first one get away from us in the late innings, and then in the second game, we battle our way back and a fluke miscue costs us.

“We just can't seem to catch a break.”

The Cardinals spotted the Saints a 2-0 lead in Presentation's first at-bat, then got one run back in their half of the first on an RBI single by Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.). SMU added its second run in the bottom of the second when Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn.) scored on a two-out wild pitch.

SMU broke the deadlock in its half of the third, getting a two-run double off the bat of Andrew Warren (Stillwater, Minn.) and a two-out, RBI single from Swanson to take a 5-2 advantage.

Cardinal starter Gary Seifert (Prescott, Wis.) made that lead stand up, as the senior held Presentation to just those two first-inning runs through five innings.

In the sixth, however, Seifert and reliefer John Henderson (Blooomington, Minn.) ran into trouble. After a walk and a one-out single put runners on first and second, Winecke brought in Handerson, who struck out the first batter he faced, but then surrendered a two-run double to the Saints' Chad Ellingson to cut the gap to 5-4. An SMU error, a run-scoring single and a two-run double off the bat of Michael Babcock completed the Saints' five-run inning — and sealed the Game 1 win.

Lulic, Warren and Swanson each had three hits to pace SMU's nine-hit Game 1 offensive attack. Seifert scattered six hits and four runs, all earned in 5 1/3 innings, while Henderson, meanwhile was tagged for the loss, allowing three runs — all unearned — on three hits in 1 2/3 innings.

The Saints struck first in the nightcap, getting a two-run home run from Heath Giedt in the bottom of the second inning.

The Cardinals answered with a home run of their own, as Swanson delivered their first round-tripper of the spring — a three-run shot that gave SMU a short-lived 3-2 lead.

Presentation scored four times in its half of the third, and it was again Giedt who delivered the biggest blow, belting his second home run of the season — a three-run shot over the left-field fence to give the Saints a 6-3 lead.

A two-out, RBI single by Dillon Naumann pushed Presentation's lead to 7-3, but the Cardinals weren't about the throw in the towel. SMU made it a 7-6 game with three runs in the fifth — two on a two-run double by Jon Schlemmer (DePere, Wis.) and the other on a run-scoring single by Swanson, then tied it up in the seventh when Warren led off with a triple and scored on a Pat Krieger (Mendota Heights, Minn.) single.

The Saints went down in order in the bottom of the seventh, and SMU failed to score in its half of the eighth — and then disaster struck, as Presentation's Giedt opened the bottom of the eighth with a triple down the right-field line, and scored when SMU reliever Sam Nord (West St. Paul, Minn.), trying to intentionally walk pinch-hitter Nathan Barrett, sailed the pitch over his catcher's head, allowing Giedt to score from third with the game-winning run.

SMU finished with 13 hits in the nightcap, including a 3-for-4, two-run effort from Lulic. Warren, Swanson and Schlemmer each added two hits, while Swanson drove in four runs.

The Cardinals are back in action on Friday, taking on Concordia-Wisconsin and Rockford in a pair of nine-inning games, before closing out their spring trip with a nine-inning game against Mairan on Saturday.