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TUCSON, Ariz. — After dropping a 6-1 decision to Concordia-Chicago during the first day of their spring trip, the Saint Mary's University baseball team was looking forward to getting another shot at the Cougars during the final day of their trip on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the second time around wasn't any better, as Concordia-Chicago scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and never relinquished the lead in handing the Cardinals a 7-4 nonconference setback.

“I thought we had a pretty good day of baseball,” said SMU coach Nick Winecke, whose Cardinals had their seven-game losing streak snapped with the loss — just their third in 10 spring trip games. “If we could have gotten a hit here or there, the end result might have been a little different.”

After setting the Cardinals down in order in the top of the first, Concordia-Chicago tagged SMU starter Teddy VanRanst (St. Paul, Minn.) for three runs on four hits to grab an early 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals got one run back in the second on a Taylor Thelemann (Bloomington, Minn.) sacrifice fly, but CUC pushed the lead back to three, 4-1, with a solo run in the third. A bases-loaded single by Mike Feriancek (River Falls, Wis.) and SMU's second sacrifice fly of the day — this one off the bat of Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) — got the Cardinals to within one, 4-3, in the fourth.

The Cougars again had an answer, however, scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth to make it a 6-3 CUC advantage. Doll delivered a run-scoring groundout in the sixth to cut the Cougar lead to two, 6-4, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.

David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.) went 3-for-4 to pace SMU's 10-hit attack, while Zach Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) was 2-for-4 and Doll notched a pair of RBIs.

VanRanst suffered the loss, allowing six earned runs on eight hits in five innings, while Matt Biagini (Maplewood, Minn.) surrendered one unearned runs on two hits in three innings of relief.

The Cardinals (7-3 overall) are now off until March 17, when they square off against Wartburg in a nonconference doubleheader at the HHH Metrodome.