By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team kicked off its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season in style Sunday afternoon — thanks to one swing of the bat, and the right arm of
James Green (East Bethel, Minn.).
Connor Cornell (Plymouth, Minn.) delivered a two-out, two-run single in the top of the fourth inning, and Green made those two runs stand up, throwing a complete-game four-hitter in leading the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over No. 20 Saint John's in the opening game of their conference doubleheader at Becker Park.
The Cardinals were unable to quiet the high-powered SJU offense in the nightcap, as the Johnnies scored 12 unanswered runs — including three in the fifth and four more in the sixth — in rolling to a 12-1, seven-inning victory.
"I thought overall we played pretty well all afternoon," said Saint Mary's coach
Nick Winecke. "The first game was a classic pitcher's duel between two of the best pitchers in the conference. We got a clutch hit from Connor and rode Jimmer's arm to a big win in the opener.
"The second game just got away from us," Winecke added. "We gave up too many walks and had a few defensive miscues — and against a team like Saint John's, you can't afford to do that.
"But overall, there were more positives to take away from the afternoon than there were negatives."
The Cardinals broke a scoreless deadlock in the fourth, as
Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) laced a one-out single and
Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) followed with a double down the left field line to put runners on second and third. After a
Hunter Gustafson (Webster, Wis.) strikeout,
Connor Cornell (Plymouth, Minn.) delivered a two-run single, scoring both Matthews and Tepp to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
The Johnnies foiled Green's shutout bid in the sixth, as Wyatt Ulrich reached on a one-out infield single, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a groundout.
That, however, would be the only run Green would allow, as the Cardinal sophomore got a ground-out to end the sixth and worked a perfect seventh in posting the four-hit, complete-game victory.
Along with Cornell's two-run single, Saint Mary's other five Game 1 hits came from five different players —
Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.),
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.),
Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.), Matthews, and Tepp.
The Cardinals got things rolling early in the nightcap. Weinberg opened the game with a single, moved to second on a Johnnies throwing error, advanced to third on a Piechowski groundout and scored on Belleveau's second hit of the afternoon.
This time around, however, the Johnnies had an answer — and then some — scoring twice in the bottom of the first, before adding a solo run in the second and two more in the fourth to grab a 5-1 advantage.
Saint Mary's loaded the bases with two out in the top of the fifth — but failed to push a run across. The Johnnies, meanwhile, loaded the bases in their half of the fifth — with much different results, as Michael Gruber drew a bases-loaded walk and Max Jackson laced a two-run single to push the SJU led to 8-1.
And SJU's offense was just getting warmed up, as the Johnnies plated four more runs in the bottom of the sixth to complete the seven-inning victory — and earn Saint John's the conference split.
Weinberg collected two of the Cardinals' six Game 2 hits, while also scoring Saint Mary's lone run. Belleveau, Tepp,
Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.), and
Bailey Melz (Excelsior, Minn.) had the Cardinals' other five hits.
The Cardinals (1-1 MIAC, 9-9 overall) are back on the road for a pair of conference games on Wednesday, heading to Carleton's Mel Taube Field in Northfield, Minn., for their showdown against the Knights. Game 1's opening pitch is set for 2:30 p.m.
