NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It took nearly two hours for the Cardinal baseball team to get from Saint Mary's University to Carleton, and then there was the lengthy warm-up, and another two-hour bus ride home — all for 19 minutes of baseball action.
 
But for coach Nick Winecke and the Cardinals — it was worth every minute.
 
The Cardinals had the second game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against the Knights halted on Tuesday due to lightning and impending darkness, with Saint Mary's leading 6-2 with two outs in the top of the eighth inning.
 
And when play resumed Thursday afternoon at Carleton's Mel Taube Field, it was the Jonathan Cieminski Show, as the senior left-hander faced just six Carleton batters in preserving the Cardinals' 6-2, sweep-clinching victory.
 
The Cardinals had scored three times on four hits — including RBI singles by Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) and Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.) — to push their lead to 6-2 when play was halted on Tuesday.
 
The Cardinals appeared to be on the verge of breaking the game wide open when action began again, loading the bases on a walk and a hit-batsmen, only to hit into a ground out to end the threat, and the eighth inning.
 
But four runs was more than enough for Cieminski, who came on in relief of starter Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) to open the seventh. Cieminski set the Knights down in order in the seventh, faced just three batters in the eighth, and sent Carleton down 1-2-3 in the ninth to preserve the win — and earn his first collegiate save.
 
Carleton had grabbed the early upper hand in the nightcap, scoring twice off Gilbertson in its first at-bat. From there, however, Gilbertson was virtually untouchable, allowing just one hit, while striking out five, over the next five innings, before giving way to Cieminski.
 
Saint Mary's would chip away at the Knights' lead, scoring solo runs in the second and fifth innings, before taking its first lead of the game, 3-2, on an RBI single by Jake Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) in the sixth.
 
Matthews and Coons each had two hits in Game 2, while Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.), Jake Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.), Brandon Hafemann (Milwaukee, Wis.), and Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) had the other four hits.
 
On Tuesday, the Cardinals opened the conference doubleheader with a 4-0 victory, riding the shutout pitching of James Green (East Bethel, Minn.) and Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.).
 
The two combined on a five-hit shutout — and the Cardinal offense broke open a one-run game with three runs in the top of the sixth inning en route to the Game 1 win. Green, making his first start of the season, limited the Knights to just four hits over the first three innings, before giving way to Hochevar, who tossed four innings of one-hit relief to record his team-leading third win of the season.
 
The Cardinals scored their four Game 1 runs on four hits — one each by Weinberg, Matthews, Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.), and Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) — with two of those four hits coming in SMU's three-run sixth.
 
Saint Mary's (3-4 MIAC, 9-7 overall) is back in action this weekend, playing three conference games against Augsburg. The Cardinals and Auggies will play a doubleheader at Parade Stadium beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, before heading to Max Molock Field for a single, nine-inning MIAC contest on Sunday.