ST. PAUL, Minn. — There is something about pitching against St. Thomas that has brought out the best in Saint Mary's University's Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.).
 
In his last two outings against the Tommies, the hard-throwing right-hander blanked St. Thomas over 17 innings, walking just one and striking out 13 in a 1-0, nine-inning victory on April 10, 2018 and a 4-0 eight-inning win on April 9, 2019.
 
And Cardinal baseball coach Nick Winecke was hoping the third time would be just as charming when Wolfe toed the rubber in Game 1 against the Tommies on Friday afternoon.
 
Unfortunately, the third time was the charm … for St. Thomas.
 
The Tommies tagged Wolfe for three runs on 11 hits in five innings — and broke the game open with a four-run sixth in beating the Cardinals 7-1 in the opener. St. Thomas then completed the conference sweep, erupting for 10 runs in the fifth inning in rolling to a 17-2 victory in the nightcap at Koch Diamond.
 
After suffering their 18th consecutive scoreless inning against the Cardinal right-hander, the Tommies finally broke through against Wolfe in the second, scoring a solo run on three hits to grab a 1-0 lead.
 
St. Thomas put together its second straight three-hit inning in the third en route to its second straight one-run inning, before adding another solo run in the fifth to push the lead to 3-0.
 
Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) and Will Matthews (Geneva, Wis.) opened the Cardinal sixth with back-to-back singles, moved to second and third on a balk, and Weinberg scored SMU's only run on a Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.) infield single to make it 3-1.
 
That, however, would be as close as Saint Mary's would get, as the Tommies put the game out of reach with its four-run sixth.
 
Weinberg, Matthews, Belleveau, and Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) accounted for Saint Mary's four hits in Game 1.
 
The Tommies left little doubt in the second game, scoring twice in the first inning — and, after Saint Mary's got one run back in the top of the second on a UST throwing error — tacking on three more in the third for a 5-1 advantage.
 
Saint Mary's plated its second run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) to make it 5-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth. The next time the Cardinals would get to the plate, however, that deficit had ballooned to 13, as the Tommies erupted for 10 fifth-inning runs to put the game out of reach.
 
The Cardinals managed just two hits in the nightcap, a single by Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) and a double by Matthews — to lead off the first and second innings respectively.
 
The Cardinals (1-3 MIAC, 7-5 overall) and Tommies will go at it again on Saturday — this time at Max Molock Field. The two teams will play a nine-inning conference game beginning at 1 p.m., with a seven-inning nonconference game to follow.