By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
AUBURNDALE, Fla. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team closed out its 10-game spring trip in winning fashion Sunday — but the Cardinals waited for the last possible moment to pull out the victory.
 
The Cardinals scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning, as Saint Mary's rallied for a 9-8 nonconference win over Rhode Island.
 
Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Ill.) opened the Cardinal ninth with a double and Matt Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) reached on a throwing error to put runners on first and third. Piechowski stole second with one out, and O'Brien would score one out later on a wild pitch by Rhode Island's Shaun Gamelin to give the Cardinals the 9-8 victory.
 
Saint Mary's came out swinging against the Anchormen, scoring twice in the first inning on a two-out double by Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) and adding a solo run in the second when O'Brien singled to right to score Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.).
 
After Rhode Island plated its first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, Saint Mary's tacked on two in the fifth when Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) belted his second home run of the season — a two-run shot — to push the Cardinals' lead to 5-1.
 
 The Anchormen got within one, 5-4, with three runs in the second, and after the Cardinals answered with a three-run eighth — highlighted by RBI singles from Matthews and Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) — Rhode Island put together a four-run bottom half of the eighth to knot the game at 8-8.
 
And set up the Cardinals' late-game heroics.
 
The Cardinals finished with 14 hits, including two each from O'Brien, Piechowski, Weinberg, Matthews, and Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.).
 
Saint Mary's, which closed out its spring trip with a 6-4 record, is now off until March 20, when the Cardinals head to Carol Stream, Ill., for a pair of nine-inning games against Dominican (11 a.m.) and Wheaton (5 p.m.), followed by an 11 a.m. against Cornell the following morning.