AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Just 24 hours after erupting for 25 runs in making their season-opening sweep of Milwaukee School of Engineering look easy, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team found itself in a pair of nailbiters against Wartburg Monday afternoon.
 
With a favorable—and a not-so-favorable—outcome.
 
The Cardinals picked up their third straight win of the young season, working out a seventh-inning jam in beating the Knights 4-3 in Game 1.
 
In the nightcap, however, it was Wartburg that wiggled out of several late-game jams—scoring two runs in the bottom of the 12th, and two more in the bottom of the 13^th in earning the nonconference split with a 7-6 victory.
 
"It was a wild day of baseball," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke. "Two very good games between two evenly matched teams. We had our chances to get the sweep—we just couldn't shut the door late."
 
Saint Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and third innings of the opener—the first-inning run coming on a Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) RBI single, while Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) delivered a run-scoring double in the third—but three unanswered runs by the Knights left the Cardinals staring at a 3-2 deficit heading to the bottom of the fifth.
 
With one swing of the bat—a Buerkle two-out, fifth-inning home run—the Cardinals pulled even, 3-3, and Saint Mary's plated an unearned run in the sixth to take the lead for good.
 
Buerkle accounted for three of Saint Mary's seven Game 1 hits, going 3-for-34 with three runs scored, while Kinne chipped in a 2-for-3 effort.
 
Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) earned his first pitching win of the season, throwing two innings of scoreless, two-hit relief. Jesse Barron pitched the first five innings for Saint Mary's, giving up three runs on four hits, while walking four and striking out three.
 
And, as if playing their fourth game in a two-day span wasn't tough enough, the Cardinals decided to play nearly a fifth game in the nightcap.
 
Saint Mary's scored twice in the top of the third—both coming on a Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) single—and got an RBI single from Kinne in the top of the sixth to pull the Cardinals even, 3-3.
 
 After five straight scoreless innings, the Cardinals and Knights decided to turn up the offensive heat.
 
Saint Mary's grabbed a brief, 5-3 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the 12^th, only to have Wartburg answer with two runs in its half of the frame.
 
The Cardinals grabbed the lead again in the 13^th on an RBI single by Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.), but again, the Knights answered, scoring twice in the bottom of the inning to earn the come-from-behind win—and the nonconference split.
 
The top four batters in the Cardinal lineup collected nine of their 11 hits—Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) went 3-for-6 from the lead-off spot, with Piechowski, Buerkle, and Kinne all adding two hits.
 
The Cardinals (3-1 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, squaring off against Franklin at 11 a.m. (EST).