By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
AUBURNDALE, Fla. — For eight of nine innings against Capital Thursday afternoon, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team outscored the Crusaders 5-1.
And then there was the eighth inning.
Capital erupted for seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, erasing that 5-1 Saint Mary's advantage and leading the Crusaders to an 8-5 victory over the Cardinals.
With starter
Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) silencing Capital through the game's first four innings, the Cardinal offense gave the junior right-hander some run-support in the fifth, scoring four times — highlighted by an RBI single by
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) and a sacrifice fly by
Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) — to grab a 4-0 advantage.
Wolfe set the Crusaders down in order again in the fifth, but Capital finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth. The Crusaders sandwiched a pair of doubles around a line-out to center to cut the Saint Mary's lead to 4-1 — and chase Wolfe.
Tyler Stilp (Lindstrom, Minn.) came out to record a pair of ground-ball outs to end the threat, and maintain Saint Mary's four-run advantage.
Make that a four-run advantage, as
Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) led off the Saint Mary's seventh with a double, moved to third on a ground-out and scored on a wild pitch to the Cardinals what appeared to be a comfortable 5-1 cushion heading into the eighth inning.
An inning coach
Nick Winecke would like to forget.
Capital sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs on six hits to transform that 5-1 Saint Mary's lead into an 8-5 Crusaders' victory.
Tepp and
Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) each collected two hits to pace the Cardinals' eight-hit attack, with Piechowski,
Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.),
Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.), and
Brandon Hafemann (Milwaukee, Wis.) accounting for the other four.
The Cardinals (4-2 overall) are back in action on Friday, squaring off against Neumann in a nine-inning nonconference contest. First pitch is slated for 1:45 p.m. (EST).
