ST. PAUL, Minn. — The temperature may have been more than 20 degrees cooler than they were used to, but the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team certainly didn't seem to mind.
 
Coming off an 8-2 showing in the 70 degree Florida sunshine during their 10-game spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla., the Cardinals—winners of three straight—picked up right where they left off when they took the field for their "Minnesota opener" in 40-degree weather Tuesday against Northwestern.
 
The Cardinals used a pair of two-run innings in posting a 4-1 victory in the opener against Northwestern at Reynolds Field, before scoring eight runs in the first four innings of the nightcap en route to a sweep-clinching 10-5 triumph.
 
And as hot as the Cardinals have been, no one was hotter against the Eagles than Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.).
 
Schlemmer—who had nine hits in the Cardinals' 10 spring-trip games combined—collected five hits vs. the Eagles, going 3-for-4 and driving in a pair of Saint Mary's runs in Game 1, before adding two more hits and another RBI in Game 2.
 
Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) and Schlemmer delivered two-out hits—Buerkle's an RBI double and Schlemmer's a run-scoring single—to give the Cardinals a 2-0 third inning advantage in the opener.
 
Northwestern cut the gap in half with a solo run in the bottom of the fourth, but Schlemmer came through again, delivering a run-scoring seventh-inning triple that scored Buerkle, who led of the inning with a walk. Drew Denning added a bases-loaded RBI groundout to account for the Cardinals' other seventh-inning run.
 
Along with Schlemmer's 3-for-4 effort, the Cardinals also got two hits from Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.), as the Cardinal duo accounted for five of the team's 10 Game 1 hits.
 
The Cardinals left little doubt in the second game, scoring once in the first, four times in the second, twice in the third and once more in the fifth to build a commanding 8-0 advantage.
 
And with Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn.) on the mound, eight runs was more than enough.
 
Dawson, who did not allow a run in 12 innings during his two spring-trip appearances—including a complete-game three-hitter in a 1-0 win over Loras on March 5—continued his stingy ways against Northwestern, blanking the Eagles on two hits over the first four innings, before giving way to Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) in the fifth.
 
The Eagles would score five runs off three Cardinal relievers over the game's final three innings, but it was too little, too late, as Saint Mary's cruised to its 10th win of the season.
 
Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.), Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.), and Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.) all went 3-for-4—with Miley and Scatassa each driving in three runs—while Schlemmer and Buerkle both chipped in two hits to ignite the Cardinals' 16-hit Game 2 attack.
 
The Cardinals (10-2 overall) are back in action this weekend, heading to Carol Stream, Ill., three nonconference games. Saint Mary's squares off against Buena Vista (11 a.m.) and Wheaton (5 p.m.) on Friday, before taking on Aurora (11 a.m.) on Saturday.