ST. PAUL, Minn. — New day, new tactic — and, unfortunately for the Saint Mary's baseball team, a new outcome.
 
After winning its NCAA Regional opener in a slugfest — scoring 15 runs on 18 hits in a 15-13 win over Aurora — the Cardinals found themselves in a pitcher's duel in Round 2.
 
And, despite a gallant effort by Cardinal starting pitcher Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.), the Cardinal offense came out firing blanks, as the University of Northwestern scored three unearned runs in the eighth inning in dealing Saint Mary's a 3-1 setback at Reynolds Field.
 
The Cardinals, who hit everything in sight in Friday's opener — including a towering, two-run, game-winning home run by Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) in the top of the ninth inning — had more than their fair share of chances against UNW's Bryce Crabb.
 
They just couldn't get the key hits when they needed them.
 
"It's a tough one to lose, we just have to bounce back and get after it tomorrow," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke, whose team is right back in action Sunday morning, squaring off against Johns Hopkins in an elimination game at 11 a.m. A win over the Blue Jays, and Saint Mary's would get another shot at Northwestern Sunday night at 6 p.m. "That eighth inning ate us up a bit — we made three bad defensive plays, and you can't afford to do that in a one-run ball game.
 
"I thought we got away from our approach a bit at the plate, but got it back in the later innings and put ourselves in position to have a shot in the end — it just wasn't our night."
 
The Eagles came out swinging from the opening pitch, tagging Wolfe for a pair of hits — including a lead-off double on the first pitch of the game by Andrew Simonson — but the SMU right-hander induced a pair of flyball outs, the first kick-starting a Tepp-to-Costello-to-Drake double play and the second a lazy flyout to Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) in right.
 
After failing to capitalize on a one-out single by Anderson in the first inning, the Cardinals made some noise in their second trip to the plate against UNW starter Bryce Crabb.
 
Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.) recorded a one-out single, and after a Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) walk, Joey Costello — coming off a four-hit performance in Friday's win over Aurora — drilled a single to score Belleveau with the game's first run.
 
With Wolfe virtually untouchable, the Cardinals had more than enough opportunities to pad its lead, putting a runner on base in each of the next four innings – a one-out single by Belleveau in the second, a two-out Weinberg single in the third, a one-out single by Belleveau in the fourth, a two-out double by Anderson in the fifth and a two-out single by Zach Drake (Holmen, Wis.) in the seventh — only to come up empty each time.
 
That one run appeared to be more than enough with Wolfe on the mound, as he cruised through the game's first seven innings, and headed into the eighth having retired 15 of the previous 16 UNW batters.
 
That all changed, however, as Crabb led off the eighth with a single, was sacrificed to third, and moved to second on a Cardinal throwing error that put runners on the corners with one out. Simonson followed with an RBI single through the left side, and Sam Peterson then broke the tie with a double off the wall in left field to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead.
 
Saint Mary's threatened in each of its final two at-bats, putting runners on first and third in the eighth — thanks to singles by Anderson and Tepp — and loading the bases on a pair of walks and an infield single, but both times, the Cardinals came away empty-handed.
 
"Ryan was phenomenal," said Winecke. "He battled from start-to-finish — I think it was the best outing of his career. It's Just too bad we came out on the wrong end."
 
"To be honest, that game was a lot of fun to play in," said Wolfe, who allowed just those three eighth-inning runs on seven hits, while equaling his career high with nine strikeouts. "The key for me was being able to throw multiple pitches for strikes and stay around the zone —when you can do that, and can attack the hitters, good things will happen.
 
"(The loss) stings a little right now, but we'll be all right — we'll bounce back."
 
Anderson — who had never had a four-hit game prior to Friday's four-hitter against Aurora — tacked on four more hits in five at-bats against the Eagles, while Belleveau went 2-for-4, and Weinberg, Tepp, Drake, and Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) all finished with one hit.