COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — With victories over Concordia, Gustavus, and St. Thomas already on their resume, the Saint Mary's University baseball team needed just one more win to record its first-ever Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff title — and earn the conference's automatic bid into next weekend's NCAA Division III National Tournament.
 
Unfortunately, St. Thomas wasn't quite ready to ride off into the MIAC sunset, scoring a solo run in the top of the ninth inning to break a 5-5 tie en route to a 6-5, come-from-behind victory.
 
And now, there is no safety net — the Cardinals and Tommies will play one more game, winner-take-all. First pitch is set for 5:50 p.m.
 
For the second time in as many post-season meetings, the Tommies scored in their first at-bat against the Cardinals. UST, which scored twice in the first inning of Friday's 6-3 loss to Saint Mary's, grabbed a 1-0 lead this time around. Sam Kulesa kicked things off with a lead-off single and scampered all the way to third when the hit was misplayed in the outfield. After a groundout back to the mound, Jake Porter delivered a one-out single.
 
Saint Mary's escaped any further damage, as Cardinal starter Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) got Charlie Bartholomew to strike out and SMU catcher Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) threw Porter out trying to steal on the play.
 
The Tommies did push that lead to 2-0 in the second inning, however, once again taking advantage of a two-base Cardinal error.
 
Max Wallace was hit by a Gilbertson offering to lead off the second inning, and SMU's second error in as many innings — this one on a failed pick-off attempt — pushed Wallace to third. Max Moris pushed UST's lead to 2-0 with an RBI ground-out to second, but again Gilbertson limited the damage, getting a fly ball out to right and a line-out to short to end the threat.
A
fter going down in order in the first on three fly ball outs, and opening the second with a groundout to short, the Cardinals picked up their first hit off UST starter Tyson Stritesky on an Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) double to right. The senior advanced to third on a Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.) groundout, and scored on Tommie shortstop Matthew Enck throwing error to cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
With Gilbertson silencing the Tommies' bats with three straight scoreless innings in the third, fourth, and fifth, the Cardinals had a golden opportunity to erase the one-run deficit in the bottom of the fifth. Zach Drake (Westby, Wis.) belted a two-out single and O'Brien followed with his second hit of the game to put runners at the corners. Stritesky, however, worked out of the jam by striking out Anderson for the third out of the frame.
 
St. Thomas scratched out a pair of runs across in the seventh to build their lead to 4-1. Max Moris recorded a one-out infield single off Gilbertson's glove and moved to second on a groundout. Josh Thorp laced a single to center to score Moris, and back-to-back singles by Enck and Kulesa scored UST's second run of the frame.
 
Unfazed by the three-run deficit, the Cardinals did what they have done all season, answer back — in a big, big way.
 
Belleveau opened the Saint Mary's half of the seventh with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.). Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) and Drake followed with back-to-back singles — and O'Brien blasted a three-run home run over the right-field fence to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game, 5-4.
 
Gilbertson — on just two days rest — gave way to Jonathan Cieminski (Fountain City, Wis.) to open the eighth, and Avery Lehman greeted Cieminski by drawing a walk and moving to second on a wild pitch. After notching a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Bartholomew smacked a single to right to score Lehman and knot the game at 5-5. Weinberg threw out pinch-runner Michael Fleischacker trying to steal second for the second out, and Cieminski got Wallace to fly out to Tepp in right to avoid any further damage.
 
And then came the ninth – an inning the Cardinals would like to forget.
 
Moris opened the Tommie ninth with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Halverson, and, after a Thorp walk — and a Cardinal pitching change that brought James Green (East Bethel, Minn.) into the game — Enck laced a single right up the middle to put St. Thomas back in front, 6-5.
 
Graham Laubscher — the reigning MIAC Pitcher of the Year, who pitched 8.1 innings on Thursday — set the Cardinals down in order for the second straight inning in the ninth to ice the Tommie victory.
 
O'Brien finished with three hits to pace the Cardinal attack, while Anderson