CAROL STREAM, Ill. — Clutch hitting carried the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team to a 12-2 nonconference win over Aurora Friday afternoon.
And the Cardinals picked up right where they left off in their second game of the day, getting a three-run double from
Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) as part of a five-run second inning, leading Saint Mary's to a 10-5 win over Wheaton in the second game of the Wheaton Tournament at Pfund Stadium.
A sacrifice fly by
Jacob Frost (Moline, Ill.) and an RBI single by
Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) put the Cardinals out front 2-0, and Seegers followed Doll's single with a base-clearing three-run double to give Saint Mary's a commanding 5-0 advantage.
The Thunder would score a solo run off Saint Mary's starter
Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) in the third, but the Cardinals answered with two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth to push their lead to 8-1.
The lead ballooned to 10-1 after the seventh—thanks to RBI singles from Doll and
Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.)—and Wheaton's four-run, ninth-inning rally was not enough to make up the nine-run deficit.
Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) and
Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) feasted on Thunder pitching in much the same way they did against Aurora earlier in the day. Lursen, who had three hits and drove in three runs against the Spartans, and Barry, who belted his team-leading third home run of the season—a two-run shot against Aurora—each picked up two hits against Wheaton.
Doll and Pieczynski also collected two hits as the quartet accounted for eight of the team's 13 hits against the Thunder.
Scatassa picked up the pitching win, going the first six innings, and allowing one run on five hits, while walking one and striking out two.
The Cardinals (11-3 overall) conclude their stay at the Wheaton Tournament on Saturday morning, squaring off against Cornell (Iowa) in an 11 a.m. nine-inning nonconference contest at Pfund Stadium.