WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team is back in action on Saturday, squaring off against St. Scholastica in a nonconference doubleheader at Max Molock Field. First pitch is slated for noon
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (8-2 Overall) vs. St. Scholastica Saints (1-0 Overall)
 
GameDay Live On The Web:
• Live Stats | Video Preview
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals closed out their 8-2 spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla., with a split against Mount Union on Feb. 29. Saint Mary's beat the Raiders 6-3 in the opener, then fell 5-1 in the nightcap | Recap 1 * Recap 2
• St. Scholastica: The Saints kicked off their season in winning fashion last Sunday, knocking off Bethel, 6-2, in a nine-inning game at Northwestern's Reynolds Field in St. Paul, Minn. | Recap
 
Saint Mary's vs. St. Scholastica—Their Last Meeting:
• March 27, 1999 * St. Louis, Mo.: The Cardinals and Saints have only met once in program history, with Saint Mary's coming away with a 9-6 victory | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals are scheduled to return to action, weather permitting, next Friday and Saturday, squaring off against Aurora, Wheaton (Ill.), and Cornell (Iowa) in Wheaton, Ill.
• St. Scholastica: The Saints kick off their 10-game spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla., next Friday, taking on UW-Oshkosh in a nine-inning nonconference game.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2016 Roster | 2015 Statistics | 2016 Schedule
•  After Saturday's neutral-site "home" game, the Cardinals will play their next six games on the road—including a nine-inning nonconference game against the University of Minnesota on March 30. Saint Mary's does not play at Max Molock Field until April 2, hosting St. Thomas in a 1 p.m. conference game. … Saint Mary's—which won Game 1 in 11 of its 16 doubleheaders last season—won the first game of its lone DH in Winter Haven, Fla., beating Mount Union 6-3. … After dropping its season-opener to Augustana, the Cardinals put together an eight-game winning streak—their longest since winning nine in a row in April, 2001. … As a team, the Cardinals hit .289 during its 10 spring trip games, led by Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) and Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), who boast .424 and .412 batting averages, respectively. … Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis. / .395) leads the team with 15 hits, one more than both Kinne and Buerkle, while Kinne also boasts team highs in RBIs (11), total bases (22), and slugging percentage (.667). … Buerkle—an ABCA/Rawlings and D3baseball.com All-American—owns the team lead in doubles (5), walks (11), and on-base percentage (.556). … Buerkle's 46 runs and 47 RBIs a year ago were single-season school records. … Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.)— who closed out the season with a team- and conference-leading 21 stolen bases a year ago, has stolen nine bases through 10 games this season, giving him a school-record 67 for his four-year career. … Buerkle has had a hit in nine of the Cardinals' 10 games this season—including his current eight-game hitting streak—and has reached base safely in all 10 games. … Buerkle, who had a hit in 34 of 36 games last season, has now collected at least one hit in 80 of the 86 games he's played in, and has been held off the base paths just twice in 86 career games. … The Cardinals, who with a school-record 32 home runs last season, hit a pair of round-trippers during its spring trip. Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) belted on in Game 2 against Mount Union on Feb. 29, while Kinne launched his first collegiate HR against Concordia on Feb. 23. … Seegers is the team-leader with five multiple-hit games—including three, three-hit contests—while Kinne has recorded three multiple-RBI contests. … Kinne drove in a career-high five runs in the Cardinals' win over Concordia on Feb. 23. … The Cardinal pitching staff left Winter Haven, Fla., with a 4.56 team ERA. … Saint Mary's has had three pitchers—Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn. / 13.0 IP), Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn. / 10.2 IP), and Austin Jacobs ( / 10.2 IP)—log 10 or more innings this season. … Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in three appearances. … Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) and Johnson are the staff's strikeout leaders with 13 and 10, respectively. … Johnson's seven-hit, seven-strikeout performance against Houghton on Feb. 27 was his first complete game of the season and fifth of his collegiate career. … The Cardinals, who scored a school-record 274 runs in 2015, have plated 73 runs in 10 contests this season—including three games of 10 or more runs. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 73-50—including 10-3 in the first inning and 12-5 in the second. … Saint Mary's is 6-0 when scoring in the first inning, and 7-0 when scoring the game's first run. … The Cardinals closed out 2015 boasting a 24-12 overall record—the most wins in a season since the Cardinals went 24-11 in 1995. … The Cardinals have now won 20 or more games twice under coach Nick Winecke—Saint Mary's finished 22-20 in 2012. … The Cardinals' 7-5 win over Wheaton on March 20, 2015 was coach Winecke's 100^th collegiate coaching victory.
 
Scouting The St. Scholastica Saints:
2016 Roster | 2016 Schedule | 2016 Statistics
• St. Scholastica is coming off a 32-13 season in 2015—including its sixth straight UMAC regular season and tournament championships. … The Saints have made six consecutive NCAA Regional Tournament appearances. … CSS was the coaches' pick to win in the conference title again this year, grabbing eight of the possible nine first-place votes in the UMAC preseason coaches' poll. …  St. Scholastica will play its first 14 games this season on the road—the Saints do not kick off the home portion of their season until April 2, when they host UW-La Crosse. … The Saints' nonconference game against Bethel last Sunday (March 6) marked the earliest outdoor game in Minnesota in program history. …  Al Marolt led the CSS offense in its season-opener against Bethel, going 2-for-3 with a grand slam home run and five RBIs. … Trevor Bernsdorf—the UMAC Player of the Year and a Second-Team All-Region selection—led the team in virtually every offensive category a year ago, including batting average (.398), hits (64), doubles (14), triples (5), RBIs (50), total bases (91), and slugging percentage (.565). … Austin Colvard (.370) scored a team-leading 49 runs in 2015, while also leading the team with 29 stolen bases. … Bernsdorf amassed 19 multiple-hit games and shared the team lead in multiple-RBI games (13) with Steven Neutzling. … Bernsdorf compiled a season-best 23-game hitting streak last season. … Daniel Wood closed out the year last season as the ace of the pitching staff, compiling a 9-1 record and 1.56 ERA in 10 starts. … Wood finished with a team-high 69.1 innings pitched. He was one of four Saints' pitchers to log 40 or more innings  a year ago. … Zack Farmer (1-1, 3.71 ERA) made a team-leading 13 appearances in 2015 and accounted for three of the team's four saves. … As a staff, St. Scholastica struck out 233 batters, led by Padraic Getchell with 43 and Wood with 30. … CSS held its opponents to two runs of less in 22 of its 32 wins last season. … The Saints were 21-0 when scoring 10 or more runs in 2015. … The Saints enter this season having won 47 straight games in Duluth, Minn., including 45 straight at Wade Stadium. … The Saints will feature three sets of siblings this season—Austin and Drew Colvard, Riley and Trevor Bernsdorf, and Ben Christofferson and Sam Christofferson.