COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — Gustavus and the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs had not been a good combination for the Saint Mary's University baseball team.
 
Until Thursday evening, that is.
 
The Cardinals, who had dropped their only three post-season meetings with the Gusties heading into Thursday's MIAC Playoff showdown, erupted for a season-high 17 runs — scoring 13 of those 17 with two outs — in rolling to a 17-4 victory at Saint John's Becker Park.
 
With the win, the Cardinals (27-13 overall) earned a spot opposite top-seeded St. Thomas in Friday's noon winner's bracket game. The Tommies opened their tournament with a 7-2 win over Bethel. The Royals and Gusties will face each other in an elimination game at 3 p.m. Friday.
 
There were plenty of offensive heroes for the Cardinals in the lopsided victory — none bigger than Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.), however, as the senior finished the evening 3-for-5 with a double, home run, and a career-high five RBIs to pace Saint Mary's 16-hit offensive attack.
 
Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) and Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) also picked up three hits, while Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.), Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) both had two hits. Matthews and Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) both scored three times, with Drake, Costello, Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) and Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) all scored twice.
 
The Cardinals, who scored five of their six runs in Wednesday's 6-1 win over Concordia with two outs, were at it again against the Gusties, scoring five times in the third inning — all with two outs — to grab an early 5-0 lead.
 
With runners on first and third and two outs, Weinberg laced a two-run double to right-center to score both Costello — who opened the inning with a single — and Anderson. Matthews followed with his team-leading 15th double on the year — also to deep right-center — to plate Weinberg and make it 3-0.
 
But the Cardinals were just getting warmed up.
 
Tepp picked up his second hit of the game to drive in Matthews, and Belleveau rounded out the third-inning doubles parade with a run-scoring two-bagger of his own to push the Saint Mary's lead to 5-0.
 
The Gusties took a page out of the Cardinals playbook in the bottom of the third, scoring a two-out run of their own to whittle the lead to 5-1. Bryce Novak recorded a two-out infield single and scored GAC's first run of the game on Jack Hanson's RBI double.
 
The Saint Mary's lead ballooned to 9-1 in the fourth, as the Cardinals scored four times — and again did all their damage with two outs.
 
Drake laced a one-out single, O'Brien was hit by a pitch for the second straight at-bat. One out later, Weinberg and Matthews drew back-to-back walks to score one run. Tepp was hit by a pitch to score SMU's second run of the inning, and Belleveau blasted a two-run single to left to score both Matthews and Tepp — and give SMU a commanding eight-run lead.
 
Leading off for the third straight inning, Costello opened the Cardinal fifth with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch by Andrew Gustafson, Gustavus' third pitcher of the evening. Drake followed with a walk, and this time around, Saint Mary's wasn't about to wait until there were two outs to score a run, as O'Brien plated Costello with a run-scoring single through the left side.
 
Two outs later, the Cardinals were back to their two-out, run-scoring selves, scoring three runs on a pair of Gustavus fielding errors, and getting two more on Belleveau's third hit of the evening — a towering, two-run home run to right field to make it 15-1.
 
Gustavus showed some signs of life in its half of the sixth, opening the frame with three straight singles, before sandwiching a pair of sacrifice flies around a run-scoring double by Chris Knowles to trim SMU's lead to 15-4.
 
Saint Mary's tacked on its 13^th two-out run in the seventh, thanks to Gustavus' third error of the evening — and weren't about to take their foot off the gas, scoring another run in the eighth when Drake opened with a ground-rule double, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored on a Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) sacrifice fly to make it 17-4.
 
Overshadowed in the offensive onslaught was the performance of Cardinal pitchers Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) and Justin Haugo (Springfield, Minn.). Wolfe went the first six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits in recording his seventh win of the season. Haugo, meanwhile allowed one unearned run on three hits — while striking out four — in three innings of relief.