Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  | GameDay Preview

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Winecke was certain of one thing in this season of constant uncertainty, it was that the race for the five remaining Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament berths was going to go right down to the final out on the final day.

The Cardinals helped solidify their case for one those five conference invitations on Wednesday, collecting a clutch, 6-4, 5-4 conference sweep of Carleton at Mel Taube Field.

Now, all that stands between SMU (10-8 MIAC, 19-14 overall) and its second straight MIAC Tournament berth is a pair of games against Concordia Thursday in Moorhead, Minn.

A win in one of the two games against the Cobbers and an invite is a guarantee — and a sweep would earn the Cardinals the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. SMU could still collect that valuable first-round bye with a split against the Cobbers and an Augsburg split against St. Olaf Thursday.

Carleton entered Wednesday's doubleheader against the Cardinals having collected 24 hits in its MIAC doubleheader against Saint John's on Tuesday — and all 24 were singles.

Through the first four innings of Game 1 against SMU, the Knights added three more hits — all singles.

Carleton would add three more hits in the fifth — only these were of the super-sized variety — as the Knights belted back-to-back one-out triples, then added a two-out double, in scoring three runs to take a 3-0 advantage.

An advantage that would not last long.

After failing to scratch across a run in the game's first five innings, the Cardinals finally broke through against Carleton starter Henry Rownd in the sixth. Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) delivered a one-out single and Kyle Servais (Westby, Wis.) and Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) laced a Rownd offering into centerfield to plate Gannon, and Zach Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) followed with an RBI groundout to cut the Knights' lead to 3-2.

And in the seventh, the Cardinals were back at it.

Mike Feriancek (River Falls, Wis.) drew a lead-off walk against Carleton reliever Kevin Johnson, moved to second on a failed pick-off attempt and scored on Vince Lulic's (Mendota Heights, Minn.) RBI single to center to tie the game. SMU would tack on three more runs — highlighted by Miley's two-run double to left field — to take a 6-3 advantage.

Carleton threatened in the bottom of the seventh, but SMU closer Tyler Krysiak (Bloomington, Minn.) — who surrendered a two-out run-scoring single to Johnson — ended the threat with a groundout to first to record his sixth save of the season.

Miley led the Cardinals' nine-hit offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs, while Lulic and Gannon each chipped in two hits.

The Cardinals weren't about to wait until the sixth inning to get their offense kicked into high gear, as SMU scored twice in the second frame on a two-run, two-out single by Taylor Thelemann (Bloomington, Minn.) to grab a 2-0 lead.

Carleton clawed its way back to even with SMU, scoring single runs in the third and fourth, but a three-run fifth — fueled by Servais' two-run, two-out single — pushed the Cardinal lead to 5-2.

And Krysiak made it stand up, as the freshman survived a two-run Carleton seventh to notch his single-season record-setting seventh save.

Thelemann delivered two of SMU's five Game 2 hits, while Lulic, Servais and Pal LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.) accounted for the other three. Thelemann and Servais also each had two RBIs.