MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) has been unbeatable for the Saint Mary's University pitching staff all season.
 
So why should Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference qualifier series-opener against Augsburg be any different?
 
Gilbertson was in classic form against the Auggies, tossing his third, nine-inning complete game — limiting Augsburg to just one run on five hits — as Saint Mary's cruised to a 6-1 victory at Siebert Field in the first of three games between the two teams.
 
The Cardinals (24-12) and Auggies (7-25) will return to the diamond for the second and third games of their three-game series on Sunday at Max Molock Field. Opening pitch in Game 2 is slated for 1 p.m., with Game 3 to follow.
 
The Auggies — who had at least one hit in each of their first three at-bats, but came up empty each time — finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the fourth, thanks to one swing of Steven Salz's bat, as he lifted a Gilbertson offering over the fence in left field for a 1-0 Augsburg advantage.
 
That, however, would be the only run the Auggies would get off Gilbertson — and the Cardinal offense had yet to get warmed up.
 
And that quickly changed in the fifth.
 
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) opened the Cardinal fifth with a walk, moved to second on a throwing error by Augsburg second baseman Carson Tomony, and scored on Zach Drake's (Westby, Wis.) one-out double. Drake would then score SMU's second run of the game on an RBI single by Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.
 
A lead they would not relinquish.
 
After Gilbertson set the Auggies down in order in the sixth — the final two outs on back-to-back strikeouts — the Cardinal offense gave their junior hurler a little breathing room.
 
Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) led off the Saint Mary's seventh inning with a single and moved to third on Liam Belleveau's (Middleton, Wis.) ground-rule double. Weber drove in the Cardinals' first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly, and, after a Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) single put runners on the corners, Belleveau scored on a Drake fielder's choice ground out to give the Cardinals a 4-1 advantage.
 
Saint Mary's tacked on two more runs in the eighth, as Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) led off the inning with a single, stole second, and scored when Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) launched his second home run of the season to push the lead to 6-1.
 
And a five-run cushion was more than enough with Gilbertson on the mound. The crafty right-hander set down 14 straight batters after the Salz fourth-inning home run, before giving up a single in the eighth. Gilbertson did not walk a batter and struck out a season-high six en route to his seventh win of the season.
 
Offensively, the Cardinals banged out 12 hits — including two-hit games from O'Brien, Costello, Belleveau, and Weinberg. Matthews drove in two runs with his two-run home run, while dRake also had a pair of RBIs.