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NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Over the past three days, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team has taken the field in must-win situations — game, after game, after game.
 
And when the Cardinals must win — they do.
 
Over, and over again.
 
After picking up a pair of key Minnesota Intercollegiate wins over second-place Bethel on Sunday, the Cardinals needed one win against St. Olaf Tuesday to lock up their third straight trip to the conference's post-season tournament.
 
Thanks to an offense led by Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), and the pitching arms of Ben Dobosenski (Westmont, Ill.) and Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.), the Cardinals wasted no time punching their post-season ticket, beating the Oles 6-2 in the opener of their regular season-ending conference doubleheader.
 
The Cardinals then completed their third straight conference sweep — earning the MIAC Tournament's No. 3 seed in the process — with a convincing 8-2 victory over the Oles in the nightcap
 
With the wins, the Cardinals earned a date opposite second-seeded Bethel in Friday's opening round of the double-elimination MIAC Tournament at Veterans Field in Minnetonka, Minn. The Cardinals and Royals will square off at 7 p.m. Friday, following the opening game of the three-day tournament between top-seeded St. Thomas and fourth-seeded Saint John's.
 
"The guys really came up big today," said SMU coach Nick Winecke. "They knew what they had to do — and went out and got the job done. We swung the bats really well, got great pitching and played well in the field.

"I'm really happy for the guys," added Winecke of reaching the post-season for a third striaght year. "To come from where we were early in the year, it says a lot about this team — they stuck with the process and are now being rewarded for that."

Just two days after helping the Cardinals secure a 3-1 Game 1 win over Bethel, Johnson and Dobosenski were at it again in the opener against the Oles — only with their roles reversed.
 
Johnson scattered seven hits and allowed one run against Bethel Sunday, with Dobosenski coming on to pitch the final two innings, blanking the Royals on one hit to earn his first collegiate save.
 
So it was only fitting that this time around, it was Dobosenski in the starter's role and Johnson coming to the rescue out of the bullpen.
 
Dobosenski went the first 4 1/3 innings against the Oles, allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out three. Johnson, meanwhile, came on with two outs in the fifth and limited St. Olaf to just one hit over the final 2 1/3 innings en route to his first collegiate save.
 
And while St. Olaf hitters were getting a double-dose of Ben, the Cardinals feasted on Ole pitching, collecting 10 hits — including a 3-for-3 performance from Buerkle.
 
SMU scored single runs in the first, third and fourth innings to take a 3-0 lead, but St. Olaf responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it a one-run game, 3-2. That, however, would be as close as the Oles would get, as SMU tacked on two runs in the sixth on a pair of RBI doubles by Buerkle and Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) — before closing out the scoring with another run in the seventh.
 
Along with Buerkle's three hits, the Cardinals also got a pair of hits from Gannon, while Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.), Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.), Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.), Taylor Thelemann (Bloomington, Minn.) and David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.) accounted for the other five Game 1 hits.
 
And the Cardinal offense was just getting warmed up, as Saint Mary's belted out 16 Game 2 hits — including three each from Buerkle and Doll. LaNasa, Schlemmer, Barry and Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) all chipped in two hits, and Gannon, and Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) each chipped in one.
 
The two teams traded first-inning runs in the nightcap, with the Cardinals taking the lead for good with a pair of runs in the top of the third. St. Olaf cut the gap to 3-2 with a solo run in its half of the third, but Saint Mary's put the game out of reach late, scoring three times in the eighth and twice more in the ninth to ice the win.
 
Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn.) earned the pitching win in relief of starter Jake Merkle (Mahtomedi, Minn.). Merkle surrendered one run on five hits in two innings. Dawson came on and threw five innings of one-run, three-hit relief, before giving way to A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.), who allowed just one hit over the game's final two innings.