COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team proved to be its own worst enemy against Saint John's Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs.
 
And it could not have come at a worse time.
 
The Cardinals committed five errors—leading to six unearned runs—as Saint John's completed a perfect 3-0 run through the double-elimination tournament with an 11-4 victory over Saint Mary's at Becker Park.
 
With the win, the Johnnies earned their second straight conference tournament title—not to mention the MIAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals, meanwhile, will have to wait until Sunday's 10 p.m. NCAA selection show to see if their 27-win body of work this season is worthy of an at-large berth.
 
"That certainly wasn't the way we wanted things to unfold," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke, whose team's 27 wins are the most since the Cardinals went 28-7 during the 1992 season. "You can't mistakes like we did today—especially against a team that swings the bats like Saint John's does.
 
"It's disappointing, but, hopefully, we'll get a (NCAA) berth and still be playing ball."
 
Both teams came out swinging in the game's opening inning, combining for five runs on five hits.
 
Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.)—named the MIAC's Most Valuable Player a day earlier—opened the game with a single, and one out later, scored when Ben Buerkle launched a two-run home run to deep left-center for a quick 2-0 Saint Mary's advantage.
 
Saint John's, meanwhile, did the Cardinals one better in their half of the first, getting run-scoring single from Logan Hershey and Jack Wingerd, and an RBI groundouts by Mike Stegora for a 3-2 Johnnie lead.
 
The Johnnies took advantage of another Cardinal miscue in the third to push their lead to 5-2—getting singles by Hershey and Stegora, with both players scoring on a two-out Saint Mary's throwing error—and tacked on another run on a two-out triple by Chad Weaver and an RBI single by Derek Schiebel in the fourth.
 
SJU threatened to break the game open in the fifth, as Patrick Strey reached on an error and Stegora followed with a double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Ryan Fejt (Westchester, Ill.), on in relief of Cardinal starter Austin Jacobs (Cannon Falls, Minn.)—worked out of the jam with a pair of groundouts and a fly out to center to keep Saint Mary's within four, 6-2.
 
The Cardinals once again used the long ball to cut the Johnnie lead in half in the sixth, as Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.) laced a one-out single and scored when Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) lifted a pinch-hit two-run home run to right to make it a 6-4 game.
 
Saint John's decided to get into the home run derby in the sixth and seventh, as Cole Weaver lifted a Fejt offering over the fence in right in the sixth and Gabe MacDonald lofted a two-run shot to right in the seventh to push the Johnnie lead to 9-4.
 
The Cardinals threatened in the eighth, getting a lead-off walk from pinch-hitter Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) and a single by Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.). SJU reliever Jake Dickmeyer, however, set the next three Cardinals down in order on a fly out, strikeout, and ground out to end the threat.
 
Saint John's pushed two more runs across in the eighth, as Dan Keller laced a run-scoring double down the right-field line to plate Strey—who opened the inning with a walk—and MacDonald added a sacrifice fly to left to make it 11-4.
 
Doll, Buerkle, and Mencacci all recorded two hits to pace the Cardinals' 10-hit offensive attack, while Buerkle and Barry accounted for Saint Mary's four RBIs.
 
Weaver and Schiebel each had three hits for the Johnnies, who tagged four Saint Mary's pitchers for 13 hits.