WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team, which was coming off an 11-run outburst in an 11-7 victory over Capital earlier in the day—a win that included an eight-run fifth inning—took a little different approach to their second game of the day Sunday afternoon.
 
Fortunately for the Cardinals, the end result was equally as satisfying.
 
Saint Mary's managed just four runs in their nine-inning nonconference game against Franklin—the fourth coming on a Joe Seeger's (Oconomowoc, Wis.) one-out single in the bottom of the ninth—as the Cardinals slipped past the Grizzlies 4-3 to extend their winning streak to seven straight.
 
"That was a good college baseball game—well-played by both teams," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke. "Franklin is a talented, well-coached team, and they gave all we could handle.
 
"We got some timely hits—Joe's the biggest—and that was the difference."
 
The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead with single runs in both the first and second innings—the first when Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) grounded into a double play, and the second Jack Cherry (Hopkins, Minn.) RBI single—but Franklin answered with two runs in the top of the third to knot the game at 2-2.
 
Saint Mary's, which scored all 11 of its runs against Capital earlier in the day in two innings—a three-run first and an eight-run fifth—notched its third one-run inning in the fifth, again on a Kinne groundout, only to have Franklin pull even with  a solo run in the top of the sixth.
 
Setting up Seegers' ninth-inning heroics.
 
Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) led off the Cardinal ninth with a walk, was sacrificed to second, advanced to third on a Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) fly out to center, and scored on Seegers' single to right.
 
Seegers accounted for three of the team's eight hits—going 3-for-4, while Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.) was 2-for-2 and Kinne added two RBIs.
 
Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) picked up the pitching win in relief of starter Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.), who went the first 5 2/3, allowing three runs on five hits. Mathwig came on with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, induced an inning-ending strikeout, and added two more innings of scoreless, three-hit relief for the victory.
 
The Cardinals (7-1 overall)—who have not lost since opening their spring trip with a 7-1 loss to Augustana on Feb. 21—close out their 10-game run in Winter Haven, Fla., on Monday, squaring off against Mount Union in a nonconference doubleheader. First pitch is slated for 11:45 a.m. EST.