Box Score 1  | GameDay Preview

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It would be safe to say that the Saint Mary's University baseball team had more than its fair share of scoring opportunities in the first game of their nonconference doubleheader against Cornell Monday evening at the Metrodome.

Despite stranding nine runners on base, the Cardinals snapped a three-game losing streak, outlasting Cornell, 4-3 — thanks to a single swing of the bat by Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.).

Doll launched his second home run of the season — a towering, one-out shot to left field in the top of the ninth inning — lifting the Cardinals to their eighth win of the season.

Cornell used a five-run fourth inning to grab a 6-1 advantage in the second game, but the game was suspended due to a Dome time limit, meaning that, since the game did not go the maximum five innings to be considered an official game, if the game is not resumed at a later date, it will be declared a “no game.”

The first game proved to be a game of missed opportunities — for both the Cardinals and the Rams — as SMU put runners on base in every inning but the first, while Cornell stranded runners in all but the third inning.

Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) got the Cardinals on the board first in the opener, as the junior belted his first home run of the season — a two-run shot in the top of the fourth inning.

Cornell threatened to match the Cardinals' two-run effort — or more — in bottom of fourth, using a pair of walks and an infield single to load the bases with one out. But SMU starter Teddy VanRanst (St. Paul, Minn.) got Max Freilinger to ground into an inning-ending double play to end the threat — and preserve the Cardinals' 2-0 advantage.

The Rams cut the gap to 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth, as Jake Lehman delivered a two-out double off SMU reliever A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.) to put runners on second and third, and Zach Rogers followed with an infield single to score Joe Gerace with Cornell's first run of the game.

SMU answered with a run of its own in the sixth, as Kyle Servais (Westby, Wis.) led off with a double and Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) followed with a walk, chasing Cornell starter Jeremy Ryan. Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.) moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, and Zach Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Servais.

Cornell then took a page out of the Cardinals' book with a solo run of its own in the bottom of the sixth, as the Rams took advantage of back-to-back four-pitch walks from SMU reliever Tyler Krysiak (Bloomington, Minn.) ¬— the second with the bases loaded — to make it a 3-2 game.

And, in a game in which the Rams had at least one runner on base in every inning but the third, it was no surprise that Cornell opened the seventh with a lead-off single by Lehman. Krysiak got Rogers to ground into a force-out, but Ryan Nordtvedt delivered a run-scoring double to tie the game at 3-3, before the SMU sophomore induced a pair of groundouts to end the threat and send the game to extra innings.

And set up Doll's heroics.

Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.) went 3-for-5, and Doll and Servais each added a pair of hits to pace SMU's 11-hit Game 1 offensive attack. Sam Nord (), the fourth Cardinal pitcher, earned his first win of the season, blanking the Rams on two hits over two innings.

It was the Rams who struck first in the nightcap, getting to SMU starter Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) for a single run in the top of the second inning, but the Cardinals answered in their half of the second, getting an RBI double from Wolfe to score Lulic, who had reached on a one-out single.

Cornell broke the 1-1 tie in the fifth, scoring five unearned runs — thanks in part to a hit batsmen, two walks, a two-out throwing error and a wild pitch that allowed Frelinger to reach base safely after striking out with what have been the third out of the inning.

That, however, would be the extent of the scoring — and the game for that matter — as the game was suspended due to the Dome's time limit.

The Cardinals (8-5 overall) play their final two Dome games on Thursday, as SMU squares off against UW-Superior in a nonconference doubleheader scheduled for 6 p.m.