By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team managed just two runs in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline Thursday.
 
And two runs was enough to get the Cardinals a conference split.
 
Hamline scored four runs in the third inning en route to a 5-0 victory — marking the first time in 27 games that the Cardinals failed to score at least one run. The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the second inning — and made it stand up — in holding off the Pipers 2-1 in Game 2 at CHS Field.
 
The Cardinals certainly had their share of chances in the opener, putting at least one runner on base in six of the seven innings — only to come up empty each time.
 
Saint Mary's had its best scoring opportunity in the second, when Hunter Gustafson (Webster, Wis.) delivered a one-out double and Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) and Mitchell Feyereisen (River Falls, Wis.) induced back-to-back walks to load the bases. But Hamline pitcher Nolan Schoonveld worked out of the jam, getting Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) to fly out to center and Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) to line out to third.
 
Hamline broke the scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the third, parlaying five hits, a first-and-third double steal, and a Cardinal throwing error into four runs to take a 4-0 advantage.
 
The Pipers added a solo run in the fourth — and for Schoonveld, five runs was more than enough.
 
Schoonveld limited the Cardinals to five hits — from five different players — en route to the complete-game shutout on the mound for Hamline. Eli Morison (Minneapolis, Minn.) also tossed a complete game on the mound for Saint Mary's, allowing five runs — four earned — on nine hits over six innings.
 
Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) extended his hitting streak to a career-high 20 straight games with a first-inning single, while Drake, Gustafson, Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.), and Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) accounted for the other four Cardinal hits.
 
After stranding yet another runner in the top of the first of Game 2, the Cardinals finally broke through in the second. Gustafson and Tepp opened the inning with back-to-back doubles to plate the Cardinals' first run of the afternoon and Dixon Irwin (Red Wing, Minn.) added a sacrifice fly to left to give Saint Mary's the 2-0 advantage.
 
The Cardinals could not cash in on a golden opportunity in fifth, getting back-to-back singles by Drake and Piechowski to lead off the inning, but a double play and a fly out to center foiled the threat — and left Saint Mary's clinging to its two-run lead.
 
Hamline also squandered a chance to do some offensive damage in their half of the fifth, loading the bases with two out, but Cardinal starter Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) got Devin Rodgers to pop out to short.
 
Saint Mary's let another picture-perfect scoring opportunity slip through its fingers in the sixth, as Tepp laced his third hit of the game — a one-out single — and Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) followed with a double to right-center to put runners on second and third. There they would stay, however, as Hamline reliever Jimmy Skroch induced a strikeout and groundout to keep it a 2-0 game.
 
The Pipers cut the Cardinal lead in half in the bottom of the seventh — on a sacrifice fly by Jake Dujmovic with runners on second and third and no one out. Joe Bauer (Pine Island, Minn.), on in relief of Gustafson since the sixth, worked out of the jam without any more damage, getting a ground out and a strikeout to leave the game-tying run at third base.
 
And the Pipers certainly made things interesting — and a little nerve-wracking — in the ninth, loading the bases with one out. But again, Bauer worked out of the pickle, getting a foul-out to first and a groundout to second to recording his first collegiate save.
 
Tepp finished the second game 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI, while Piechowski and Gustafson each chipped in two hits. Weinberg was held hitless, snapping his career-high 20-game hitting streak — the Cardinals' longest such streak since Ben Buerkle hit safely in 20 consecutive games during the 2014 season.
 
Gilbertson earned the win on the mound, shutting the Pipers out on three hits in five innings, with Bauer collecting the save, allowing a lone run on four hits in four innings of work.
 
The Cardinals (7-5 MIAC, 15-13 overall) — who have now split their last four doubleheaders — are back in action on Saturday, returning home to Max Molock Field for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against Concordia.