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WINONA, Minn. — Game 1s of their conference doubleheaders have not been very kind to the Saint Mary's University baseball team of late.

Less than a week after being held hitless in a 3-0 loss at Saint John's, the Cardinals managed just two hits off a pair of Hamline pitchers in falling to the Pipers 5-0 at Max Molock Field Monday.

The Cardinals' offense didn't heat up much in the second game, either, as Hamline's Cass Kreitlow limited the Cardinals to five hits in fueling the Pipers to a sweep-clinching 6-2 win in the nightcap.

Hamline got to SMU starter Andrew Ruf (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) in the third inning of the opener, scoring four times — once on an RBI triple by Tony Rogers, once on an RBI groundout and twice on sacrifice flies — in the top of the third. The Pipers would then ice the win with a solo run in the sixth.

Piper starter Matt Mullendore limited SMU to just two hits — a first-inning single by Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn.) and a Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) double to lead off the fourth — in five innings of work. He walked one and struck out two, before giving way to Rannon Arch, who worked a perfect sixth and seventh to seal the victory.

Hamline jumped out to a 3-0 lead after its first at-bat in Game 2, as Rogers delivered a two-run home run and, two outs later, Dan Ellefson laced an RBI single.

The Cardinals got one run back in their half of the first, as Swanson pounded his second home run of the season, a two-out solo shot to deep center. Hamline answered with two more runs in the top of the second to make it a 5-1 Piper advantage.

Swanson delivered SMU's second run in the second, as the Cardinal junior beat out a ground ball to third, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get, as Kreitlow held them to just one hit over the final four innings to seal his fifth win of the season.

Swanson and Cody Pfennig (La Crosse, Wis.) accounted for four of SMU's five hits — with both going 2-for-3 — while Mike Feriancek (River Falls, Wis.) accounted for the other.

The Cardinals (2-12 MIAC, 8-22 overall) step out of conference play on Tuesday, hosting UW-Stout in a 2:30 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.