Box Score 1 | Box Score 2  | GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University baseball team 11 innings to finally get on the scoreboard in the opening game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Gustavus Saturday afternoon.
 
And one run was all the Cardinals would need.
 
Tommy Merkelis (Calumet City, Ill.) accounted for the game's only run — without swinging the bat — as the senior's bases-loaded walk in the top of the 11th inning plated Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) with the game's only run in the Cardinals' 1-0 victory.
 
SMU wasn't about to wait another 11 innings to plate its first run in the nightcap, scoring in their first at-bat — on their second bases-loaded walk of the afternoon.
 
Unfortunately, that would be the only run the Cardinals would score in Game 2, as Gustavus used five second-inning singles to score two runs and GAC starter Sam Carlson made it stand up in a 2-1 Gustie victory.

"The guys battled all day," said SMU coach Nick Winecke. "(Gustavus') pitchers did a nice job all day — we just didn't make the adjustments we needed to at the plate.
 
"We certainly had our share of (scoring) chances," Winecke added. "But we put ourselves in position to win two conference games on the road and came away with one.
 
"I was proud of the way the guys competed all afternoon."
 
With the offenses in Game 1 hibernation, SMU's Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) and Gustavus' Grant Soderburg stole the show for the game's first seven innings, matching each other pitch-for-pitch — and zero-for-zero.
 
Scatassa went the first seven innings for SMU, scattering seven hits and striking out two, while Soderburg tossed nine innings of eight-hit, 10-strikeout ball.
 
Neither pitcher, however, was around when the Cardinals finally scored the game's first — and only — run.
 
It may have taken the Cardinals 11 innings to finally get on the board in the opener — but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.
 
After being set down in order in their first two at-bats, the Cardinals threatened in the third — getting back-to-back singles by David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Taylor Thelemann (Bloomington, Minn.) to put runners on first and third with no one out — but came up empty.
 
SMU threatened again in the sixth, as Thelemann and Pat Krieger (Mendota Heights, Minn.) opened the inning with back-to-back singles and moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) — but again the Cardinals came up empty.
 
And in the seventh, SMU was at it again, putting runners on second and third with one out — only to have the potential go-ahead run thrown out at the plate for the third time on the afternoon.
 
Buerkle led off the Cardinals' seventh with the second of his four hits, and, after Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.) reached on an error, the two were sacrificed to second and third by Merkelis. Barry followed with a fly-out to right, and Buerkle was gunned down at the plate trying to score to end the threat.
 
The Gusties, who put at least one runner on base in nine of the 11 innings, took a page out of the Cardinals' book in their half of the seven, putting runners on second and third with two outs — only to have Scatassa induce Danny Carlson to fly out to right to end the threat.
 
And send the game into extra innings.
 
Doll nearly single-handedly got the Cardinals on the board in the eighth, delivering a two-out single and promptly stealing second and third, but the sophomore was stranded when Soderburg got Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.) to strike out.
 
Gustavus also threatened in its half of the eighth, putting runners on second and third with two outs, but SMU reliever A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.) struck out Christopher Kelly to send the game to the ninth.
 
Gannon reached on a two-base error by GAC's Carlson to open the SMU ninth and moved to third on a bunt single by Buerkle. Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) was intentionally walked to load the bases, but Soderburg worked out the jam, fueled in part by Gannon being gunned down at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch.
 
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the 11th on singles by Gannon and Buerkle and a Gustavus error. A walk to Tommy Merkelis (Calumet City, Ill.) plated the game's first — and only run — and Redders worked out of a first-and-second, two-out jam in the bottom of the 11th to seal the win.
 
The Cardinals took the early lead in Game 2, as Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the first to score LaNasa and give SMU an early 1-0 advantage.
 
Gustavus grabbed its first lead of the afternoon in the second inning, as the Gusties scored two runs on five singles off SMU starter Ben Dobosenski (Westmont, Ill.) — and Carlson made it stand up, allowing just that first-inning run on three hits, while striking out six in the complete-game effort.
 
Gannon, Schlemmer and Thelemann accounted for SMU's three hits off Carlson, while Dobosenski was the tough-luck losing pitcher, surrendering two runs on eight hits in tossing his first collegiate complete-game.
 
The Cardinals (3-2 MIAC, 7-14 overall) are right back in action on Sunday — weather permitting — as SMU hosts nationally ranked St. Thomas in a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader at Max Molock Field.