WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team picked an inopportune time for their bats to go into a spring hibernation.
 
Less than 24 hours after managing just three runs in a pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games against St. Thomas, the Cardinals were looking to turn up the offensive heat in the teams' rematch Saturday.
 
St. Thomas, however, had other ideas, as three Tommie pitchers limited the Cardinals to just five hits — and no runs — in dealing Saint Mary's a 13-0 setback in the conference portion of the teams' doubleheader at Max Molock Field.
 
And the April deep-freeze continued for the Cardinals in the nightcap, as Jack Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) managed Saint Mary's only hit — breaking up a Tommie no-hit bid with two outs in the bottom of the seventh — as UST completed the sweep with a 7-1 win.
 
The Tommies, coming off two huge offensive performances against the Cardinals on Friday, picked up right where they left off in the opener on Saturday, scoring once in the first and three more times in the second to jump to a 4-0 lead.
 
St. Thomas maintained that four-run lead until the game's final three innings, when the Tommies scored three times in the seventh, twice in the eighth, and four more in the ninth en route to their third straight conference win.
 
Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) went 2-for-4 to pace Saint Mary's five-hit Game 1 attack, with Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.), Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.), and Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) accounting for the Cardinals' other three hits.
 
St. Thomas was quick out of the gate in the nightcap, as well, scoring twice in their first at-bat and adding three more on a three-run Kevin Halverson home run.
 
St. Thomas tacked on solo runs in both the sixth and seventh, and appeared to be on its way to no-hitting the Cardinals — taking a no-no into the bottom of the seventh.
 
Arndt, however, had other ideas.
 
The Cardinal freshman clubbed a two-out double to break up the no-hitter and push Connor Cornell (Plymouth, Minn.) — who had drawn a one-out walk — to third. Cornell would then score the Cardinals' lone run of the afternoon on a wild pitch.
 
The Cardinals (1-4 MIAC, 7-7 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, traveling to Mel Taube Field in Northfield, Minn., for a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader against Carleton.