By
Donny Nadeau
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
WINONA, Minn. — Just two days after erupting for 17 hits—from 13 different players—and 13 runs in a 13-1 sweep-clinching win over Carleton, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team managed just two runs and four hits in the opener of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Macalester.
And two runs and four hits proved to be more than enough—especially when you have
James Green (East Bethel, Minn.) on the mound.
Green recorded his first collegiate shutout—limiting the Scots to just five hits, while striking out seven—and the Cardinals scored the game's only two runs in the top of the sixth inning, as Saint Mary's blanked Macalester 2-0.
Saint Mary's posted another two-run victory in the nightcap—thanks to a game-winning, two-run triple by
Zach Slowiak (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) in the top of the seventh inning—as the Cardinals completed the sweep, and pushed their winning streak to seven straight with a 4-2 win.
Green—who has now pitched seven innings in five of his six collegiate starts this season—and Scots' hurler Zach Anderson were locked in a pitchers' duel in the opener.
As good as Green was, allowing just five hits over the game's first five innings—before setting down the Scots in order in their final two at-bats—Anderson was equally as impressive, limiting Saint Mary's to just one hit, while striking out eight, over the game's first five innings.
Saint Mary's finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the sixth—loading the bases with no one out.
Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) plated the game's first run on a sacrifice fly to right, and
Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) delivered a run-scoring single to give the Cardinals all the runs they would need.
Barry, Slowiak,
Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.), and
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' four Game 1 hits, with Piechowski and
Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) scoring SMU's two runs.
The Cardinals used another two-run inning—this one in the top of the third on a Slowiak RBI groundout and a
Will Matthews' (Geneva, Ill.) run-scoring single—to grab a 2-0 lead in Game 2.
Macalester would cut the Cardinal lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third, and got an RBI single from McMullen with one out in the sixth to pull the Scots even, 2-2.
The deadlock did not last long, however—thanks to Slowiak.
Tepp led off the Cardinals' seventh with a double, moved to second on a Weinberg groundout, and, after Barry was hit by a pitch, Slowiak laced a triple down left field line to score both Tepp and Barry—giving the Cardinals the lead for good, 4-2.
Tepp led the Cardinals' seven-hit offensive attack, going 2-for-2 with two runs scores, while Seegers, Weinberg, Slowiak, Matthews, and
Dixon Irwin (Plover, Wis.) all chipped in one hit.
John Heim (Lewiston, Minn.) picked up the pitching win with one inning of scoreless, one-hit relief, with
Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) recording his first save of the year by retiring the game's final two batters.
Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) went the first four innings on the mound for the Cardinals, allowing one run on four hits, before giving way to
Jonathan Cieminski (Fountain City, Wis.), who surrendered one run on two hits in 1 1/3 innings.
The Cardinals (7-1 MIAC, 13-10 overall) are on the road this weekend, heading to Arden Hills, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against Bethel on Saturday, before moving on to Moorhead, Minn., to take on Concordia in a pair of 1 p.m. MIAC games the following afternoon.
