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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Winecke will be the first to admit that he would have loved to have watched his Cardinals record their third straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep Saturday afternoon.

But the Cardinals head coach certainly isn't going to complain about a split against the league's second-best team, either.

“You want to win every game, but for the guys to bounce back the way they did — that's a big split,” said Winecke, whose team dropped the opener against Saint John's 5-1, before rebounding with a 9-4 victory in the nightcap at Max Molock Field. “Give (Saint John's) credit, they took it to us a bit in the first game, but I thought we turned the tables a bit in the second game.

“We didn't get that big hit when we needed it (in Game 1), but we got some clutch hits — and had a big second inning — to come back and get the split.”

SJU's Ryan Spengler and Joey Long limited the Cardinals to just four hits in the opener — three singles and Pat Krieger's (Mendota Heights, Minn.) first-inning double. SMU starter Teddy VanRanst (St. Paul, Minn.), meanwhile, was chased after allowing four runs on seven hits in four innings. Sam Nord (Mendota Heights, Minn.) threw the final three innings, allowing on SJU run on five hits.

After three scoreless innings, the Johnnies finally got to VanRanst in the third, scoring three times. SJU would add another run in the fifth and one more in the seventh. The Cardinals foiled Spengler's shutout bid in the sixth, as Jon Schlemmer's (De Pere, Wis.) RBI groundout scored Matt Tessmer (West St. Paul, Minn.).

The Cardinals' bats came to life in Game 2, as SMU scored once in the bottom of the first, then broke the game open with five runs in the second to push its lead to 6-0. SJU got the gap to 6-1 with a solo run in the fourth, and both teams traded two-run fifth innings to give the Cardinals an 8-3 cushion going into the sixth.

Tessmer delivered an RBI double in the sixth to make it 9-3, and the Johnnies score once in the seventh to round out the scoring.

Tessmer went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs, while Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) also had a two-hit, two-RBI afternoon and Schlemmer delivered a double and three RBIs.

Matt Biagini (Bloomington, Minn.) picked up the pitching win, going the first five innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Justin Kronebusch (Altura, Minn.) pitched one inning, surrendering one run, while Nord finished up with an inning of one-hit relief.

The Cardinals (5-7 MIAC, 16-15 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, traveling to St. Paul, Minn., for a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader against Macalester.