MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Last Monday, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team enjoyed the thrill of a walk-off victory in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against St. Olaf—getting a two-out, run-scoring single by Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) to cap a four-run, 10^th-inning rally and lift the Cardinals to a 7-6 win over the Oles.
 
In their conference twinbill against Augsburg Thursday at Parade Stadium, the Cardinals had to endure the agony of a walk-off defeat—twice.
 
The Auggies broke a 1-1 tie with a two-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh in handing Saint Mary's a 2-1 setback in the opener, before erupting for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to rally for a 7-6, come-from-behind win in the nightcap.
 
The Auggies broke up a scoreless pitchers' duel in the third inning of the opener, getting a sacrifice fly by Josh Marlowe to score Joensy Buescher, who had opened the inning with a single, moved to second on a balk, and advanced to third on a fielder's choice groundout to shortstop.
 
With one swing of the bat, the Cardinals pulled even in the top of the fourth, as Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) launched his seventh home run of the season—a one out shot to right field.
 
That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offensive punch in Game 1.
 
And that seemed to be just fine with R.J. Brown (Broadview, Ill.) on the mound. Brown limited the Auggies to just that one run on four hits through the game's first six innings.
 
Then came the seventh.
 
Jordan DeCroock laced a two-out double to left to kick off the Auggie rally. Buescher was intentionally walked, and the two moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Rhett Hebig was hit by a Brown offering to load the bases, and Marlowe followed with his game-winning, walk-off single to left to give Augsburg the 2-1 victory.
 
The Cardinals finished with five hits from five different players—Buerkle, Weinberg, Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.), Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.), and Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill.)—while Brown (2-3) was the hard-luck losing pitcher, allowing just the two runs on six hits, with six strikeouts and four walks.
 
Saint Mary's had things under control early in Game 2, scoring three times in the fourth—the first on a Kinne double and the other two on a Bartosz single—to grab a 3-0 lead.
 
Augsburg answered with a solo run in the bottom of the fourth, but a Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) two-run home run—his team-leading eighth of the season—in the sixth pushed Saint Mary's lead to 5-1.
 
The Auggies again cut into the deficit in their half of the sixth, scoring two runs of their own to make it a 5-3 game. Both teams scored single runs in the eighth, giving the Cardinals what appeared to be a comfortable, two-run, 6-4 advantage heading to the bottom of the ninth.
 
Unfortunately, that lead was anything but comfortable.
 
Eric Olheiser led off the Augsburg ninth with a double, and Mike Brookshaw followed with a game-tying two-run home run to right. Snow delivered a single and was sacrificed to second. Buescher was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second, and, after Snow took third on a wild pitch, Hebig lifted a one-out, game-winning sacrifice fly to right.
 
Bartosz and Kinne each had three hits—accounting for six of the team's eight hits—in Game 2, while Barry drove in three runs and Bartosz finished with a pair of RBIs.
 
The Cardinals (3-7 MIAC, 13-16 overall) are back in action on Saturday, hosting Macalester in a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.