MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Hits — and runs — were hard to come by for the Saint Mary's University and Augsburg baseball teams during the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader.
 
The Cardinals — coming off a pair of wins over Carleton earlier in the week — managed just three runs on only four hits against Augsburg's Mathew Nicklay.
 
As good as Nicklay was, however, he played second fiddle to the Cardinals' Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.).
 
Wolfe was as near-perfect as you can get, facing just 22 batters — one over the minimum — while shutting out the Auggies on one hit and striking out nine in leading the Cardinals to the 3-0 Game 1 victory.
 
The Cardinals got another stellar pitching outing in the nightcap, as three Cardinal hurlers limited Augsburg to four runs on eight hits in helping Saint Mary's complete the conference sweep with a 5-4 win.
 
Wolfe set the Auggies down in order in the first two innings, before surrendering a lead-off single to Ty Gage to open the third. The Cardinal right-hander promptly induced a ground-ball double play and proceeded to set the Auggies down in order until the top of the seventh, when Kyle Hoppe reached on a fielding error to open the inning. Unfazed, Wolfe retired the next three batters he faced to seal the complete-game shutout.
 
Saint Mary's gave Wolfe all the run support he would need, scoring solo runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored, while Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.), Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.), and Ben Coons (Kimberly, Minn.) accounted for Saint Mary's other three runs.
 
Both teams scored single runs in the first inning of Game 2, with Saint Mary's grabbing a 2-1 lead on a Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) sacrifice fly in the third. Augsburg answered with a solo run in the fourth, but again the Cardinals would answer, scoring once in the sixth on a wild pitch, before adding to more in the eighth for a 5-2 advantage.
 
Augsburg cut the lead to 5-3 with a run in the eighth, and made it a one-run game with another in the bottom of the ninth — and had the bases loaded with no one, only to have Kodey Kiel (Owatonna, Minn.) strike out the next three batters to seal the Cardinal win.
 
Anderson had two of Saint Mary's six hits in Game 2, with Matthews, Coons, San Schneider, and Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) accounting for the other four. Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.) earned the pitching win, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. Kiel collected his second save with his three-strikeout ninth.
 
The Cardinals (4-4 MIAC, 10-7 overall) and Auggies will square off again once more on Sunday, this time at Max Molock Field in a nine-inning conference contest. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.