COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — In their first game of the day Friday, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball banged out nine hits against Saint John's—and managed just two runs in a 4-2 loss.
 
In their second game of the day, the Cardinals nearly equaled that nine-hit effort—in the eighth inning alone.
 
The Cardinals erupted for 10 runs on eight hits—with the first 10 batters in the inning all coming around to score—as Saint Mary's cruised to a 19-2 win in an elimination game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff Friday evening at Becker Park.
 
"That's a big win for us," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke, whose team rebounded from a heartbreaking 4-2 loss to Saint John's earlier in the day to earn a spot in Saturday's championship game against the Johnnies. "I was really proud of the way we rebounded. We got great pitching from Ben (Johnson) and swung the bats incredibly well—a great team win all the way around."
 
After playing 18 innings of flawless defense, the Cardinals committed a pair of first-inning errors to allow Hamline to grab an early 1-0 lead in its first at-bat.
 
The Cardinals answered in their first at-bat, as Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) walked, moved to third on a single through the left side by Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.), and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.).
 
"We may have won by 17 runs, but the difference in that game was in the first inning," Winecke said. "We played probably our worst defensive inning of the season, but weathered the storm, only allowing that one run. That could easily been a four-run inning—instead, we hold them to one run, come back and score one in the bottom of the first and it's a 1-1 game."
 
But not for long.
 
Saint Mary's grabbed its first run of the lead in the third, getting a clutch two-out triple—on a 3-0 count—from Ben Buerkle to score Doll and Pieczynski, who had both singled.
 
Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) sparked the Cardinals' second straight two-run inning in the fourth, leading off with a triple off the right-field fence. Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.) followed with a grounder to third, and Kinne broke for home, sliding in safely when HU third baseman Rick Tormey's throw to the plate sailed high. Mencacci eventually scored on a Joe Seeger's (Oconomowoc, Wis.) groundout to push the Saint Mary's lead to 5-1.
 
After getting the first two runners on but coming up empty in the fifth, the Cardinals would not be denied in the sixth, taking advantage of two Piper errors to score three more times and push their lead to 8-1
 
The Pipers, who, after scoring the game's first run and put runners on base in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings, finally plated their second run off Cardinal starter Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) in the seventh, scoring on a one-out, RBI groundout by Collin Olstad.
 
Kinne plated Saint Mary's ninth run of the game in the bottom of the seventh, lacing his second home run of the day—a lead-off shot that slammed off the scoreboard in right—and Buerkle and Kinne delivered two-run, stand-up triples to highlight the Cardinals' 10-run eighth to make it 19-2
 
Pieczynski led the Cardinals' 16-hit attack, going 5-for-6 with two runs and a pair of
RBIs, while Doll and Kinne each had three hits. Doll also scored five runs, and Buerkle delivered seven RBIs in a 2-for-4 performance.
 
Johnson went the first eight innings for the Cardinals, allowing two runs—only one of which was earned—on five hits, while walking one and striking out six. Josh Hottinger (Oconomowoc, Wis.) worked a perfect ninth for Saint Mary's.
 
With the win, the Cardinals—who improve to 27-14-1 overall—enter Saturday's action needing to beat unbeaten Saint John's twice to earn the conference tournament title and the NCAA automatic berth. The two teams will square off at noon at Becker Park, with a 3 p.m. if-necessary game to follow.