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DECORAH, Iowa — The first inning could not have gone any better for the Saint Mary's University baseball team in its nine-inning nonconference game against Luther.
 
The Cardinals got off to a running start, as Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) singled and promptly stole second and third before scoring the game's first run on a Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.) single.
 
And SMU starter Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill.) promptly got three fly ball outs in the bottom of the first to preserve the Cardinals' 1-0 advantage.
 
Unfortunately, the second, third and fourth innings didn't go quite so well, as the Norse scored  eight unanswered runs — before holding off a late SMU rally to beat the Cardinals 11-7.
 
After LaNasa's RBI single got the Cardinals out to that short-lived 1-0 lead, Luther answered with three runs in the second, two more in the third and three in the fourth to grab an 8-1 lead.
 
SMU made things interesting with three runs in the fifth — highlighted by a Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) two-run double — and two more in the sixth on Doll's first home run of the season, a two-run shot that whittled the Norse lead to two, 8-6.
 
Luther, however, quickly answered, scoring three runs in its half of the seventh to regain a five-run cushion, 11-6. SMU did score once in the eighth on an RBI single by Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.
 
Doll and Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) each finished with three hits to pace the Cardinals' 13-hit attack, while LaNasa, Buerkle and David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.) all chipped in two hits.
 
The Cardinals (10-18 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, as SMU travels to Parade Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader against Augsburg.