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COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — The weather outside may have been conducive to hibernation, but for the Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Winecke, the Cardinals picked the wrong time for their bats to take a slumber.

Saint John's pitcher Hayden Zimmerman held the Cardinals without a hit in leading the Johnnies to a 3-0 win in the opening game of the team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader. SMU banged out eight hits in the nightcap, but could not come up with the key hit when they needed in most in dropping Game 2, 5-4.

“It was a tough day to play — it was cold and the wind was blowing pretty good — but that certainly isn't an excuse,” said Winecke. “Give (Zimmerman) credit, he pitched a very good game, we just kept hitting ground ball after ground ball.

“And in the second game, our bats came to life, we got good pitching, we just couldn't come up with that big hit when we needed it late in the game.”

Zimmerman and SMU starter Gary Seifert (Prescott, Wis.) were locked in a scoreless — hitless — pitchers' duel through the first five-and-a-half innings, before the Johnnies got to the Cardinal senior for all three runs and all three hits in the bottom of the sixth.

Seifert finished with a four-hitter, while walking two and striking out two. Zimmermann, meanwhile, did not walk a batter and struck out four Cardinals in earning his first win of the year.

After spotting the Johnnies a 3-0 lead following their first at-bat, SMU erupted for four runs in the second to take a 4-1 advantage. Luke Larson (Bloomington, Minn.) drove in two of the Cardinals' four second-inning runs with a single to right, while Jake Lechner added an RBI double and Joe O'Neill (St. Paul, Minn.) accounted for the other on a run-scoring ground out.

The Johnnies evened things up at 4-4 with a solo run in the bottom of the second, then plated the game-winner in the fifth on a sacrifice fly.

Lechner and Andrew Warren (Stillwater, Minn.) were both 2-for-3 to lead the way for the Cardinals.

SMU (2-10 MIAC, 8-20 overall) returns to action on Saturday, hosting Hamline in an MIAC doubleheader at Max Molock Field. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.