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ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a season filled with plenty of highs and lows, the Saint Mary's University baseball team was poised for the highest of highs Sunday, as the Cardinals entered the bottom of the sixth inning deadlocked with league-leading St. Thomas 3-3 in the first game of their regular-season ending Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals and coach Nick Winecke, by the time Justin Kronebusch (Altura, Minn.) got Nick Reichert to fly out to center, the Tommies had sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs on six hits again three different SMU pitchers to take an 11-3 lead en route to an 11-4 opening-game victory.

UST used a pair of big innings to complete the sweep, as the Tommies scored four runs in the first and four more in the fourth to beat SMU 9-5 and earn a share of the MIAC regular-season title.

The Tommies jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opener, scoring three times in the third off SMU starter Gary Seifert (Prescott, Wis.). The Cardinals answered with a three-run inning of their own, as Pat Krieger (Mendota Heights, Minn.) delivered a bases-clearing, three-run triple — the first of his collegiate career — in the top of the fourth.

The game remained deadlocked at 3-3 until the bottom of the sixth, when J.D. Dorgan's lead-off single sparked the Tommies eight-run outburst.

Krieger closed out the scoring in the top of the seventh, as the SMU freshman belted his first collegiate home run to finish the game 2-for-3, while driving in all four Cardinal runs. Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn.) and Luke Larson (Bloomington, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' other two hits off Tommie pitchers Jared Dehmer and Bryce Gapinski.

Trailing 4-0 after the first inning in Game 2, SMU got on the board in the second on an RBI double by Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.). After giving that run back in the bottom of the second, SMU scored twice in the third, then added two more in the top of the seventh, but it was not enough to slow down the Tommies — winners of 12 straight conference games and 19 of their last 23 contests.

Swanson finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in Game 2, while Cody Pfennig (La Crosse, Wis.) and Larson each chipped in two-hit performances.

The Cardinal close out their season 3-17 in conference play and 10-28 overall.