By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
AUBURNDALE, Fla. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team had its offense in mid-season form in the Cardinals' season-opener against Cabrini Sunday afternoon.
Saint Mary's erupted for 11 runs against the Cavaliers — including four on
Matthew Piechowski's (Hutchinson, Minn.) first collegiate grand slam — as the Cardinals rolled to an 11-1 win.
And the offense remained in high gear in Saint Mary's second game of the day, as the Cardinals walked away — literally — with a yet another lopsided win, taking advantage of a single-game school-record 16 walks and cruising to a 13-8 victory over Milwaukee School of Engineering.
The Cardinals came out swinging against Cabrini, scoring once in their first at-bat on a sacrifice fly by
Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.), and, with one swing of the bat, that lead ballooned to 5-0 in the second as Piechowski launched his grand slam, scoring
Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.),
Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.),
Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) ahead of him.
Saint Mary's continued to pour it in the fourth, scoring four more runs. — the first two on a
Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) bases loaded single, with a Tepp groundout and
Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) single plating the other two runs.
Liam Believeau (Middleton, Wis.) laced an RBI single to center in the fifth and Matthews recorded his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to left in the sixth to round out the Cardinals' scoring.
Drohner, Matthews, and Drake all collected two hits, while Piechowski went 1-for-2 with four RBIs and Matthews chipped in a pair of RBIs.
James Green (East Bethel, Minn.) earned the pitching win, blanking the Cavaliers on one hit for six innings,, with
Mark Paul allowing one run on two hits in the seventh.
The Cardinals surrendered a first-inning run to MSOE in their second game of the day, but rebounded by scoring a pair of unearned runs in the second when they loaded the bases on back-to-back-to-back walks and plated two runs on a single by Costello.
The lead did not last long, however, as MSOE opened the fourth with a leadoff triple and a run-scoring single by Nick Gross. Cardinal starter
Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) induced a ground-ball double play and a groundout to third to end the threat.
Piechowski continued to swing a hot bat for the Cardinals, lacing an RBI double to right-center in the Cardinals' fourth, with Tepp following with a run-scoring double of his own to give Saint Mary's a 4-2 lead.
Brandon Hafemann (Milwaukee, Wis.) followed with a single to the pitcher, and
Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) and
Hunter Gustafson (Webster, Wis.) both walked to push the lead to 5-2 — and leave the bases loaded with no one out. Another walk, this one a one-out free pass to Costello plated Saint Mary's fourth run of the inning and pushed the Cardinals' lead to 6-2.
And the Cardinals weren't finished — not by a long shot.
Pinch-hitter
Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.) ripped a one-out, three-run double down the left-field line, clearing the bases and extending the Cardinals' lead to 9-2.
Saint Mary's tacked on two more runs in the fifth — thanks to two more walks, a hit batsman, and a
Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) RBI single — to secure its second straight 11-plus run game.
The Cardinals surrendered a solo run in the sixth, but got the run back with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh — only to have the Raiders make things interesting with a three-run eighth inning to cut the Saint Mary's lead to 12-6.
Hafemann laced a run-scoring single for the Cardinals in the bottom of the eighth, but MSOE would not go down without a fight, as the Raiders scored two more runs in the top of the ninth — and had the bases loaded with one out. Cardinal reliever
Tyler Stilp, however, came on to record back-to-back strikeouts to preserve the win.
Piechowski closed out his high-octane day collecting three hits in five at-bats, while Hafemann, Anderson and Costello all collected two hits to pace the Cardinals' 11-hit attack, while Irwin went 1-for-3 with three RBIs and Hafemann, Piechowski, Drohner, and Gustafson all scored twice.
Wolfe picked up the pitching win, going the first five innings, allowing two runs on four hits, while walking one and striking out six.
The Cardinals (2-0 overall) are back on the diamond on Monday for two more games against MSOE. Opening pitch for Game 1 is slated for noon.
