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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Winecke isn't one to look for moral victories — but after watching his team's performance Sunday afternoon, he certainly didn't have to look far to find plenty of silver linings in the Cardinals' 6-3, 2-1 losses to Augsburg.

“It was one of those days where we played very well for 13 of the 14 innings,” Winecke said. “We gave up four runs in the fifth inning (of the opener) that we should have gotten out of on a ground ball double-play ball, but we didn't make the play.

“Other than that, I thought we played very well — it really was a very good day of baseball all the way around.”

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning of Game 1, as Jake Lechner (Shoreview, Minn.) delivered a two-out, two-run triple to right. The Auggies answered back, using single-run innings in the second and third to knot the game at 2-2.

Then came the fifth inning, where Augsburg parlayed five hits and a one-out Cardinal error into four runs to take a 6-2 advantage. SMU threatened in the seventh, collecting three hits — including an RBI single by Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) — but Auggie starter Bryant Nordby foiled the threat by inducing Cody Pfennig (La Crosse, Wis.) to ground into a game-ending double play.

Lechner and Luke Larson (Bloomington, Minn.) each collected two hits to pace the Cardinals' eight-hit Game 1 offensive attack. Andrew Ruf (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) suffered the pitching loss, allowing five earned runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings. David Timmons (Rochester, Minn.) threw 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, scattering two hits.

In the nightcap, the two teams traded third-inning runs — SMU's coming on a Lulic RBI single to right — before Augsburg took advantage of a lead-off walk off SMU starter Chris Bogie (St. Paul, Minn.) to the game-winning run in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Bogie tossed his team-leading third complete game in taking the loss — the senior right-hander held Augsburg to two runs on five hits, while striking out two.

Lulic again led the Cardinals' offense, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.), Andrew Warren (Stillwater, Minn.) and Pfennig accounted for SMU's three other hits.

“It's disappointing (to lose both games), because I thought we actually played well enough to win either or both games,” said Winecke, whose team steps out of conference play on Tuesday, hosting the University of Dubuque in a nonconference doubleheader beginning at 2:30 p.m. “Our pitchers did a great job; defensively, we made one error in two games; and offensively we swung the bats pretty well. We just couldn't get that key hit when we needed it.”