ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team returns to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Thursday, as the Cardinals travel to St. Thomas for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader against St. Thomas.
 
The Matchup:
• Saint Mary's Cardinals (1-3 MIAC, 11-12 Overall) at St. Thomas Tommies (5-1 MIAC, 12-9 Overall), 2:30 p.m.
 
GameDay Live On The Web:
• Live Stats: Game 1 * Game 2
 
Last Action:
• Saint Mary's—April 8, 2017 * Collegeville, Minn.: After managing just one run on three hits in the first game of their MIAC doubleheader against Gustavus last Wednesday, Saint Mary's was looking for a little Game 1 offensive spark against Saint John's. A four-run first inning—highlighted by a three-run home run by Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.)—certainly should have done the trick. Should have. The Johnnies, however, had other ideas, answering the Cardinals' four run first with four runs of their own in the bottom of the first—before erupting for eight runs in the second—en route to a 16-8 Game 1 victory. It was another four-run inning that proved to be the different in the nightcap, as the Johnnies scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning—erasing a 4-1 Saint Mary's lead—and leading SJU to a sweep-clinching 5-4 win over Saint Mary's at Becker Park | Recap
• St. Thomas: The Tommies suffered their first conference loss of the season in a split with Concordia. St. Thomas rode the four-hit shutout pitching performance  of Henry DeCaster in a 3-0 victory in the opener, but the Cobbers came away with the win in the nightcap, outscoring the Tommies 10-8 | Recap
 
Saint Mary's vs. St. Thomas—A Year Ago:
• April 3, 2016 * Winona, Minn.: It wasn't quite the way Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke was hoping his Cardinals would open the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedule. The Cardinals were limited to just four runs over 16 innings, as No. 21 St. Thomas dealt Saint Mary's a pair of conference losses—4-1 and 10-3—at Max Molock Field | Recap
• May 12, 2016 * Collegeville, Minn.: Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) went 3-for-5 with a single, double, home run, three RBIs and a pair of runs scored, while Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) was near-perfect, tossing a complete-game, four-hit shutout. Add that to three-run innings in the fourth and seventh innings, and the end result was a convincing 7-0 Cardinal win over the conference's regular-season champion and No. 1-seeded Tommies during the opening day of the MIAC Playoffs at Saint John's Becker Park | Recap
 
Up Next:
• Saint Mary's: The Cardinals return home to Max Molock Field on Saturday, hosting St. Olaf in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader.
• St. Thomas: The Tommies head across down to Macalester on Saturday for a 1 p.m. MIAC twinbill against the Scots.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2017 Roster | 2017 Statistics | 2017 Schedule
• Thursday's showdown against St. Thomas is the second straight road doubleheader for the Cardinals, who are still searching for their first road win of the season (0-5). Saint Mary's is 3-3 at Max Molock Field, and 8-4 in neutral-site contests. … With their 10 hits in the opener against Saint John's last Saturday, the Cardinals have now recorded 10 or more hits in seven of their last 11 games, and 14 times in their 23 games this season. … Saint Mary's amassed a season-high 19 hits against Finlandia on March 1. … Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) collected three hits against Saint John's last Saturday—including a first-inning single in the nightcap that made the Cardinal senior the program's all-time hits leader with 221. … Buerkle is one of just two Cardinals in program history with 200 or more career hits—Willie Doll is the other (220). … Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) also had three hits against the Johnnies, while Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) launched home runs in both games—a three-run, first-inning shot in Game 1, and a solo shot in the sixth inning of Game 2. … Buerkle enters Thursday's doubleheader against St. Thomas hitting a team-best .482. He is one of eight Saint Mary's regulars with batting averages above .300—Matthews (.365), Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn. / .357), Zach Slowiak (Chippewa Falls, Wis. / .355), Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill. / .344), Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis. / .341), Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis. / .330), and Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn. / .316) are the others. … Buerkle also leads or shares the team lead in runs (26), hits (41), home runs (6), RBIs (23), total bases (68), slugging percentage (.800), walks (12), and on-base percentage (.550). … Buerkle, who had his season-opening 10-game hitting streak snapped against Wheaton on March 18, has been held off the base paths just once this season—failing to reach base in Game 1 against UW-Oshkosh on April 2. … Buerkle, who owns at least one hit in 20 of the team's 23 games, has collected at least one hit in 129 of the 141 games he's played in, while reaching base safely in 137 of those 141 games. … Saint Mary's has now belted 13 home runs this season—with Buerkle (6) and Barry (6) accounting for 12 of them. … Matthews launched his first collegiate home run—a two-run, seventh-inning shot—against Aurora on March 17. … Seegers leads the team in at-bats (94) and shares the team lead in doubles (7), while Matthews  and Slowiak share the team lead in doubles with eight—one more than both Seegers and Buerkle. … Mathews is the team's leader in triples (2) and is second—along with Kinne—in RBIs (18). … Saint Mary's is 36-for-46 in stolen base attempts, led by Buerkle (9), Seegers (8), and Kinne (6). … Buerkle leads the team with 14 multiple-hit games—including a season-high four-hit effort in Game 2 against MSOE on Feb. 26. … Buerkle also boasts a team-leading seven multiple-RBI games, two more than Kinne and Matthews. … Matthews and Slowiak each own a single-season and career-high five-RBI game—Matthews driving in five in his first collegiate game against MSOE on Feb. 26, while Slowiak equaled that feat in Game 2 against MSOE on Feb. 26. … R.J. Brown (Broadview, Ill.), who posted the Cardinals' first no-hitter in more than two decades in guiding Saint Mary's to a 10-0 win over Aurora on March 17, tossed seven more innings of no-hit ball in his next two appearances—three in a no-decision against Viterbo on March 22, and four in another no-decision against UW-La Crosse on March 29. The Eagles finally collected their first hit with a leadoff single to open the fifth, snapping Brown's streak of 14 hitless innings. … Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn. / 0-1, 4.94 ERA) has logged a team-high 27.1 innings, with Brown (2-1, 2.73 ERA, 26.1 IP), Jesse Barron (Minnetonka, Minn. / 1-2, 5.47 ERA, 26.1 IP), Eli Morrison (Minneapolis, Minn. / 2-3, 4.56 ERA, 25.2 IP), and Austin Jacobs (Cannon Falls, Minn. / 1-3, 5.04 ERA, 25.0 IP) having also logged over 20 innings this season. … Josh Hottinger (Oconomowoc, Wis.) leads the staff with a 3-0 record, while Brown's 2.73 ERA is tops among Cardinal regulars. … Brown and Jacob Taschetta (Winfield, Ill.) each earned their first collegiate pitching wins during the Cardinals' spring trip—Taschetta struck out four in 2.1 innings of relief in Saint Mary's win over Finlandia on March 1, while Brown went the first four innings, striking out a career-high eight, in beating MSOE on Feb. 26. … Jacobs and Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) share the team lead with nine pitching appearances. … Mathwig picked up his team-leading second save in the Cardinals' 4-1 win over UW-Oshkosh on April 2, while Jacobs and Bartosz own the team's other two saves. … Brown leads the staff with 23 strikeouts—including a career-high eight against Milwaukee School of Engineering on Feb. 26. … Saint Mary's has scored 150 runs—and have plated at least one run in all 23 games. … The Cardinals have scored 10 or more runs six times this season, including a season-high 19 in a 19-4 win over Finlandia on March 1. … Saint Mary's is 10-4 when leading after the sixth inning. … The Cardinals are 8-7 when scoring first, and 9-5 when scoring in the first inning. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 30-14 in the first inning and 29-13 in the sixth. … Saint Mary's made its fourth conference tournament appearance in the last five years under coach Nick Winecke in 2016, falling to Saint John's 11-4 in the MIAC Playoff title game. … The Cardinals finished with a 27-15-1 overall record—marking the third time under coach Nick Winecke that they have won 20 or more games in a season. … Saint Mary's 27 wins are the most since 1992, when the Cardinals finished 28-7.
 
Scouting The St. Thomas Tommies:
2017 Roster | 2017 Statistics | 2017 Schedule
• Thursday's showdown with Saint Mary's is the third home doubleheader for the Tommies, who have swept UW-Stout and St. Olaf in their first two twinbills at Koch Diamond. … St. Thomas' 10-8 Game 2 loss to Concordia last Saturday was not only its first conference loss of the season, but also snapped the Tommies' seven-game winning streak. … Henry DeCaster tossed a four-hit shutout, and Sam Cobbs and Sam Schneider each had two hits in UST's 3-0 Game 1 win over Concordia, while Cobbs added a 3-for-5 showing in the nightcap to pace St. Thomas' 13-hit attack. … Cobbs heads into Thursday's doubleheader against Saint Mary's leading the team in virtually every offensive category, including batting average (.441), at-bats (68), hits (30), runs (16), doubles (7), home runs (2), total bases (45), slugging percentage (.662), walks (7), and on-base percentage (.506). … Jake Smith (.241) shares the team lead in runs (16), while Hunter Hart (.295) joins Cobbs with a team-best seven doubles. … Hart (13), Schneider (12), and Cobbs (11) have all driven in 10 or more runs. … UST has hit 11 home runs through 21 games this season, led by Cobbs, Schneider, and Smith with two each. … Cobbs and Smith are the only Tommies to have started all 21 games this season. … With his complete-game four-hitter against Concordia last Saturday, DeCaster improved to 4-0 with a 1.39 ERA—both tops among Tommie pitchers. … Ryan Zimmerman (3-2, 2.62 ERA) has thrown a team-leading 34.2 innings, while DeCaster (32.1 IP), Mitch Larson (2-2, 1.93 ERA, 23.1 IP), Caleb Fernholz (1-3, 5.82 ERA, 21.2 IP), and Drew Molin (2-1, 3.15 ERA, 20.0 IP) have also tossed 20 or more innings this season. … Zimmerman, Molin, and Fernholz have all made a team-high six pitching appearances. … Zimmerman owns a team-leading three complete games, one more than DeCaster. … St. Thomas' three pitching saves have come from three different hurlers—Alex Ogren (0-0, 0.00 ERA), Zimmerman, and Mitch Maurer (0-0, 10.13 ERA). … Zimmerman is the team's strikeout leader with 44, six more than DeCaster. … The Tommies have scored 10 or more runs just once this season—beating Wheaton (Mass.) 11-4 on March 18. On the flip side, UST has surrendered 10 or more runs in four of its nine losses. … St. Thomas has been held to two runs or less in seven of its nine losses—the lone exceptions, an 11-6 loss to Washington and Jefferson on March 21 and last Saturday's 10-8 loss to Concordia.