NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team's offense was good in its 10-9 nonconference win over NCAA Division II Winona State on Thursday.
It was even better on Saturday—twice.
The Cardinals erupted for 11 first-inning runs and never looked back in cruising to a 17-3 win over Carleton in Game 1 of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Mel Taub Field.
And Saint Mary's did not miss a beat in the nightcap, adding another 13 runs—while surrendering just three for the second consecutive game—in completing the sweep with a 13-3 victory that was shortened to seven innings by the 10-run rule.
With the wins, the Cardinals improved to 9-5 in conference play and moved into a tie for second place in the MIAC standings with idle Saint John's. Saint Mary's entered play on Saturday tied with both Carleton and Concordia for the No. 3 spot. The Cobbers took Game 1 of their conference twinbill against Augsburg, but the Auggies earned a 15-14 Game 2 win, leaving Concordia (8-6) tied with St. Thomas for the fourth and final conference playoff berth. Saint Mary's will face the Cobbers in an MIAC twinbill on Tuesday, before closing out conference play with a pair of games against league-leading Bethel next Sunday.
The Cardinals did not waste any time putting the opener out of reach, sending 16 players to the plate, collecting nine hits—including
Kevin Miley's (St. Paul, Minn.) grand slam home run—en route to their 11 first-inning runs.
Saint Mary's added single runs in the second and seventh, and four runs in the fourth, while the Knights could only managed a pair of third-inning tallies and a solo run in the fourth off three Cardinal pitchers.
Doll finished 4-for-4—including 2-for-2 with a pair of singles in the first inning alone—while Miley was also 2-for-2 in the Cardinals' first at-bat with a home run and a single en route to a 2-for-5, five-RBI performance. Buerkle and
Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Minn.) each had three hits—with Buerkle also driving in a career-best six runs, while
David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.),
Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.),
Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.) and
A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.) all chipped in two hits.
Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) improved to 5-0, allowing three runs—one earned—on nine hits, with
Jake Merkle (Mahtomedi, Minn.) and
Brian Powers (Berwyn, Ill.) each working an inning of shutout relief.
The Cardinals were not able to equal their first-inning Game 1 outburst, but they did plate four runs in the second and three more in the third to take a 7-2 advantage. Denning drove in two of Saint Mary's four second-inning runs with a bases-loaded single, while a Denning sacrifice fly and a Redders RBI single accounted for two of their three runs in the third.
Miley pushed the Saint Mary's lead to 8-2 with a two-out single in the fourth, and two big swings of the bat pushed the Cardinals lead to 13-3, as Buerkle delivered a three-run home run in the seventh and Doll drove in two more in the seventh with a two-out triple.
Buerkle went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs, and the sixth-inning home run gave the sophomore the cycle for the day—two singles, a double, a triple and a home run—not to mention nine RBIs.
Pieczynski also had a pair of Game 2 hits, with Denning and Doll each collecting three RBIs.
Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn.) earned the pitching win, allowing three runs on five hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out six.
The Cardinals, who improved to 24-8 overall—the most wins in a season since Saint Mary's went 24-11 in 1995—are back in action on Tuesday, traveling to Moorhead, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against Concordia.
