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TUCSON, Ariz. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team banged out 17 hits in its spring trip finale against Simpson Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, three errors — including one that led to Simpson's game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh — proved to be the Cardinals' undoing, as the Storm handed SMU a 7-6 nonconference setback.

"We're just making fundamental mistakes — all trip we've been making mistakes we can't afford to make — not getting bunts down, balls going under our gloves … " said SMU coach Nick Winecke, whose team returns home with a 3-7 record during their 10-game spring trip. "And until we stop making these types of mistakes, we're going to find ourselves in situations like this.

"We swung the bats a little better, it's just those fundamental mistakes that are killing us."

Simpson jumped on SMU starter Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) early, tagging the sophomore right-hander for a pair of runs in its first at-bat.

SMU, however, had an answer, scoring three times in the third — thanks to an RBI single by Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) and a two-run double by Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) — and getting an RBI groundout by David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.) in the fourth to take a 4-2 advantage.

The Storm put together a three-run inning of their own in the fourth for a 5-4 lead, but again the Cardinals bounced back, scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth to regain the lead, 6-5.

Simpson pulled even with a solo run in the bottom of the sixth, then scored what proved to be the game-winning run with an unearned tally in the seventh.

Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) finished 4-for-4 — becoming the third Cardinal to have four hits in four at-bats this season — while Miley, Gannon and Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) all had three hits, as the quartet accounted for 13 of the team's 17 hits.

Johnson went the first five innings on the mound for the Cardinals, allowing five runs, four earned, while scattering 11 hits and striking out three. Pat Regan (Mound, Minn.) went one-third of an inning, surrendering one run on two hits, while Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) was the tough-luck loser, pitching the final 2.2 innings of one-run, two-hit ball.

The Cardinals are back in action on March 21-22, when they travel to Wheaton, Ill., for a pair of nonconference games against both Edgewood and Wheaton.