| Saint Mary's enters Thursday's matchup with Saint John's riding a five-game winning streak — having dispatched of Carleton (W, 4-0/6-2) and Augsburg (W, 3-0/5-4/5-4) last week. … The Cardinals have posted a shutout win in the opener of each of its last two doubleheaders. SMU's 4-0 win over Carleton on April 6 was their first shutout since blanking Bethel 1-0 on April 28, 2019. … Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) was the hero of Game 1 against Augsburg last Saturday, tossing a complete-game, one-hit shutout. Wolfe faced just 22 batters — one over the minimum, and allowed one a third-inning single. … Kodey Kiel (Owatonna, Minn.) earned his second save of the year, striking out three straight batters with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth in Saturday's 5-4 Game 2 victory. … Justin Haugo (Springfield, Minn.) collected his first collegiate pitching win against Augsburg last Sunday, tossing four innings of shutout relief in the Cardinals' 5-4 win over Augsburg. … Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) hit a team-best .364 in the team's five games last week, while Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) collected a team-best six hits — including three doubles — and Ben Coons (Kimberly, Minn.) scored five times. … Jack Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) and Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) belted their first collegiate home runs — the Cardinals' first two round-trippers of the season — in last Sunday's 5-4 win over Augsburg. … Three Cardinal regulars with 40 or more at-bats are hitting .300 of better this season, led by Matthews' .368 batting average. Anderson (.327) and Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn. / .321) are the other two. … Saint Mary's owns 28 extra-base hits — including 26 doubles — among their 127 hits this season. Matthews leads the way with seven doubles. … Matthews leads the Cardinals with 13 RBIs, two more than Weinberg. … The Cardinals have gotten at least one RBI from 16 different players. … Zach Drake's (Westby, Wis.) four runs scored in the nightcap against Crown on March 29 were a single-game career-high and marked the first time since Joe Seegers against Rose-Hulman on March 1, 2018 that a Cardinal has scored four runs in a game. … Matthews has posted a team-high six multiple-hit games, while Weinberg owns two of the team's four three-hit performances. … Arndt recorded a two-out double in the bottom of the seventh — his first collegiate hit — to break up St. Thomas' Game 2 no-hit bid on April 3. … Anderson drew a single-game career-high three walks against Luther on March 20. … Wolfe (3-2, 3.86 ERA) has thrown a team-leading 28.0 innings to pace the Cardinal pitching staff, while also leading the team in strikeouts with 20. … Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.) leads the staff in wins (3), while Jonathan Cieminski (Fountain City, Wis.) shares the team lead in appearances (6) with Wolfe. … Hochevar earned his first win as a Cardinal, throwing four scoreless innings in relief, allowing two hits and striking out eight in Saint Mary's 5-3 Game 1 win over Augsburg on March 16. Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.), meanwhile, collected his first collegiate pitching win against Gustavus on March 26, tossing three innings of shutout, one-hit relief. … Cieminski recorded his first collegiate save in the nightcap against Carleton on April 6, facing the minimum nine batters in three innings of relief. … Saint Mary's scored a season-high 10 runs twice in its March 29 nonconference split against Crown. SMU won the opener 10-4, before falling 12-10 in the nightcap. … The Cardinals scored in 11 of the 13 innings they batted in against Crown on March 29 — including scoring at least one run in all six innings of their 10-4, Game 1 win. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 19-5 in the seventh inning. … With their back-to-back 5-4 wins over Augsburg last weekend, the Cardinals have played seven games this season decided by two runs or less. … Saint Mary's is 7-0 when holding its opponent to two runs or less. … The Cardinals' 10 runs in both games of their doubleheader against Crown on March 29 were a season-high. … The Cardinals' DH vs. Luther on March 14 was their first home game in 683 days, dating back to a conference DH vs. Gustavus on May 1, 2019. … Saint Mary's 4-2, Game 2 loss to Augsburg on March 16 snapped its season-opening four-game winning streak and its seven-game winning streak overall — the Cardinals had ended their pandemic-shortened 2020 season with three straight win |
The Johnnies come into Thursday's doubleheader against Saint Mary's having dropped three straight and six of their first seven conference contests. … Saint John's lost all three games against league-leading St. Thomas last weekend, falling 5-1 and 2-1 in last Saturday's doubleheader, before losing 7-2 in Sunday's nine-inning affair. … SJU managed just 11 hits in the three games against the Tommies last week, including going 3-for-33 with runners on base. … Max Nyrop is hitting a team-leading .441 for the Johnnies through 18 games, while Zach Selchow (.340) is the only other SJU regular hitting above .300. … Along with his team-leading .441 batting average, Nyrop also leads the Johnnies in at-bats (59), hits (26), and on-base percentage .500, while sharing the team lead in doubles (4) with Ethan Roe. … Roe is the team-leader in total bases (44) and slugging percentage (.800). … Saint John's has launched 18 home runs this season, led by Ethan Roe with eight. … SJU boasts four players with 10 or more RBIs — Nyrop (16), Landon Peterson (14), Nathan Brandecker (12), and Soren Roe (11). … Nyrop has delivered a team-high eight multiple-hit games and also boasts a team-leading five multiple-RBI performances. … The Johnnies have four pitchers who have logged 20 or more innings — Nick Penick (3-0, 2.96 ERA, 271 IP), Casey Trapp (0-3, 2.13 ERA, 25.1 IP), Brandecker (0-2, 6-35 ERA, 22.2 IP), and Alex Otto (3-0, 2.08 ERA, 21.2 IP). … Otto has made a team-leading nine pitching appearances — all in relief — with Brandecker leading the staff with five starts. … Trapp owns SJU's lone complete game, and Otto, Penick, and Kody Dalen (3-0, 4.20 ERA) each own one save. … The Johnnies are unbeaten (8-0) when leading after six innings. … Eight of Saint John's 18 games have been decided by two runs or less, with the Johnnies going 6-2 in those eight contests. On the flip side. … SJU has scored 10 or more runs in a game four times, including a season-high 18 runs in routing Northland 18-1 on March 17.Â
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