By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
CAROL STREAM, Ill. — For the third game in a row, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team found itself playing with the lead following its first at-bat Saturday afternoon.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, while racing out to an early lead hasn't been a problem, maintaining that advantage has.
 
Saint Mary's — which could not hold leads in falling to both Concordia-Moorhead (9-7 in 11 innings) and Concordia-Chicago (5-4) on Friday — bolted out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning of its nine-inning contest against Wheaton Saturday, only to have the Thunder respond with 10 unanswered runs in dealing the Cardinals a 12-5 setback at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
'Wheaton is a very solid team and flat-out just beat us today," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke. "Tip your hats to (Wheaton) — they played well and swung the sticks."

The Cardinals appeared to be in complete control against the Thunder after their first at-bat, parlaying six hits into four runs and a quick, 4-0 lead.
 
Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) and Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.) opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) moved them to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) followed with a two-run double to right, moved to third on an infield single by Connor Cornell (Plymouth, Minn.), and both would score on back-to-back RBI singles by Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) and Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.) to give Saint Mary's a quick 4-0 advantage.
 
Wheaton answered with a solo run in the second, before erupting for four more in the fourth — taking advantage of five hits and a Cardinal fielding error — to grab a 5-4 lead.
 
The Thunder weren't finished, either — far from it.
 
Wheaton tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fourth on an Evan Ogden three-run home run, before pushing the lead to 10-4 with a pair of runs in the sixth.
 
After erupting for four runs on six hits in the their first at-bat, the Cardinals were held scoreless on just two hits over the next five innings — before finally ending the scoreless drought with an RBI single by Belleveau to draw Saint Mary's within five, 10-5.
 
The lead quickly ballooned back to seven, however, as Wheaton's Ben Brittain laced a two-out double in the eighth to give the Thunder a commanding 12-5 lead heading into the game's final inning — an inning in which the Cardinals got a lead-off walk, only to ground into a double play and ground out to the pitcher to end the contest.
 
Weinberg, Belleveau, and Piechowski each finished with two hits to pace the Cardinals' nine-hit attack, while Matthews, Cornell, and Irwin had Saint Mary's other three hits. Weinberg also scored twice and Matthews finished with a pair of RBIs.
 
The Cardinals (6-7 overall) are right back in action on Sunday, returning to Lee Pfund Stadium in Carol Stream, Ill., or a nine-inning nonconference game against North Central (Ill.). First pitch is slated for noon.