MOORHEAD, Minn. — When Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) took the mound Wednesday afternoon for the first game of the Saint Mary's University baseball team's doubleheader against Concordia, he did so as the reigning Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week.
 
And as good as the senior right-hander was in earning the conference's weekly honor, he was even better against the Cobbers.
 
Scatassa limited the Cobbers to just two runs on four hits—all in the first three innings—in helping the Cardinals to a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the conference twinbill.
 
Saint Mary's took a little different route, with the same end result, in Game 2, scoring six runs in the top of the ninth inning, erasing a 6-4 Concordia advantage and lifting the Cardinals to a 10-6—and, more importantly, into the MIAC Playoffs for the fourth time in the last five years.
 
"It was a great day of baseball," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke, whose Cardinals snapped a nine-game losing streak at Concordia—Saint Mary's last win in Moorhead, Minn., was a 5-1 victory on April 14, 2001. "Steph certainly came through huge for us in the first game—he's been shut-down for us all season, and he was again today.
 
"I thought we did enough offensively all day, but we also took advantage of a few of Concordia's miscues," added Winecke. "It was so great to see us battle back the way we did in the second game—I always tell the guys—when you trust and believe good things will happen, chances are they will.
 
"And today they did."
 
Concordia struck first in the opener, as Matt Ziebarth belted a home run to lead off the third inning, and the Cobbers added a second run on a Tim Carlson RBI single to grab a brief 2-0 advantage.
 
Very brief.
 
The Cardinals used three hits and three Cobber errors to score three times in the fourth inning. Saint Mary's loaded the bases with one out—thanks to singles by Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) and A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.), and a Cobber error. An infield single by Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) and two more Concordia miscues plated the Cardinals' three fourth-inning runs—and gave Saint Mary's a 3-2 advantage.
 
The Cardinals took advantage of another Concordia error in the sixth, as Jacob Frost (Moline, Ill.)—who reached on a one-out error by CC shortstop Phil Kuball—scored on Willie Doll's (Amherst, Wis.) RBI single. Saint Mary's would tack on another unearned run on a Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) fielder's choice groundout to push their lead to 5-2.
 
And with Scatassa on the mound, that three-run cushion was more than enough.
 
Scatassa went the first 6 1/3 innings, not allowing a base runner after the third inning—including striking out the side in the fourth inning. After walking back-to-back batters with one out in the seventh, Scatassa gave way to Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.), who induced a pair of fly-ball outs for his team-leading sixth save.
 
Seegers and Redders each collected two hits to account for four of the Cardinals' eight hits in the opener, while Doll, Kinne, Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.), and Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) all picked up one hit.
 
The Cardinals did not waste any time flexing their offensive muscles in the second game, as Doll opened the game with a walk, stole second and scored on a double by Lursen. Kinne followed with his team-leading fifth home run of the season, as Saint Mary's jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead.
 
Concordia got one run back in its half of the first—also on a home run—as Phil Kuball belted a Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn.) offering over the fence to cut the Cardinal advantage to 3-1.
 
The two teams traded runs in the second—the Cardinals' coming on a Doll double to center. Concordia would score the game's next four runs—one in the fourth, one in the sixth, and two in the seventh—giving the Cobbers a 6-4 cushion heading into the top of the ninth inning.
 
And what a ninth inning it proved to be.
 
The Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs, and promptly scored six times—thanks once again to a pair of Cobber errors—to seal the come-from-behind, playoff-clinching win.
 
Kinne led the Cardinals' nine-hit Game 2 offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored, while Pieczynski added a pair of hits and Doll went 1-for-1 with four walks and two runs scored.
 
Ryan Fejt (Westchester, Ill.)—the third Cardinal pitcher—picked up the pitching wins, allowing just two runs on five hits in two innings, while Mathwig worked a perfect ninth.
 
The Cardinals (12-6 MIAC, 24-12-1 overall) close out the regular-season portion of their schedule on Sunday, hosting Bethel in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.