AUBURNDALE, Fla. — After scoring 81 runs in their first nine games—including four games of 10 or more runs—the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team's offense went on hiatus during the Cardinals' final game of their 10-game spring trip Sunday against Coe.
The Cardinals outhit the Kohawks 8-7, but managed just a solo run in the seventh inning, as Coe dealt Saint Mary's a trip-ending 3-1 nonconference setback.
After managing just a pair of singles—one in the second and one in the third—off Cardinal starter Eli Morrison (Minneapolis, Minn.) through the game's first three innings, the Kohawks parlayed a pair of hits and two Saint Mary's throwing errors into two runs in the fourth to grab a 2-0 advantage.
Coe would push its lead to 3-0 with a single run in the sixth, before the Cardinals finally got on the board.
After failing to score in the game's first six innings, despite picking up at least one hit in each frame, the Cardinals scored their lone run in the seventh—without the benefit of a hit.
Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) reached on a fielding error to lead off the Saint Mary's seventh.
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) was then hit by a pitch and
Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) walked to load the bases.
Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Seegers with the Cardinals' lone run.
Buerkle—who earlier in the trip recorded his 200
th career hit—went 2-for-3, and finished the 10-game stay in Florida with at least one hit in all 10 contests.
Zach Slowiak (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) also had a pair of hits for Saint Mary's, while Seegers,
Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill.),
Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.), and
Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) accounted for the other four Cardinal hits.
Morrison suffered the pitching loss, allowing just three runs—none of which were earned—on five hits, while walking three and striking out three.
Jack Nelson (Portage, Wis.) came on in relief in the seventh, blanking the Kohawks on two hits.
The Cardinals (7-3 overall) are scheduled to return to action, weather permitting, on March 17-18, squaring off against Aurora, Wheaton (Ill.), and Cornell (Iowa) in Wheaton, Ill.
