WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — After banging out 11 extra-base hits—including their first two home runs of the season—in an 11-0 and 9-2 nonconference sweep of Milwaukee School of Engineering on Sunday, the Cardinals were flexing their muscles once again Monday.
And with dramatic results.
Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) belted the Cardinals' fourth home run of the day—a pinch-hit, three-run, walk-off shot in the bottom of the eighth inning—as Saint Mary's rallied from a 7-5 deficit to beat Concordia 8-7 in Game 1 of the teams' nonconference doubleheader.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was the Cobbers who did the flexing in the rematch, belting a pair of home runs in handing Saint Mary's a 6-2 setback, and earn Concordia a split in the twinbill.
The Cardinals raced out to an early lead, taking advantage of a solo home run by
Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) and a three-run shot from
Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) to highlight Saint Mary's five-run second inning.
Concordia got one run back in the third, and the teams exchanged solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings, before the Cobbers made it a one-run game, 7-6 with a three-run sixth. CC pulled even with one run in the seventh, and took a brief 8-7 lead with a run in the top of the eighth, but Saint Mary's answered, putting runners on first and second with one out—setting up Pieczynski's pinch-hit, game-winning three-run home run.
Doll,
Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.),
Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.), and
Sam Waters (Osseo, Wis.) all collected two hits to pace the Cardinals' 13-hit Game 1 attack,
Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) picked up his first collegiate win.
Saint Mary's again grabbed an early lead, scoring twice in the top of the first—the first coming on a Cobber error and the second on a
Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) single.
That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offense.
Concordia on the other hand, did all of its damage in two innings, scoring once in the bottom of the second and adding five runs in the fourth to earn the nonconference split.
Doll added three more hits in four at-bats and Pieczynski chipped in two, as the duo accounted for five of the team's eight Game 2 hits.
The Cardinals (3-1 overall), who have now hit five home runs in their first four games—including collegiate firsts from Pieczynski and Denning—are back in action on Tuesday, squaring off against Lyndon State in a pair of nonconference games in Winter Haven, Fla.
