ST. PAUL, Minn. — It wasn't supposed to end like this.
 
The Saint Mary's University baseball team saw its record-setting season come to a screeching halt Sunday afternoon, as the Cardinals fell to Johns Hopkins 7-2 in an NCAA Regional elimination game at Reynolds Field.
 
For the second game in a row, putting runners on base wasn't the issue for the high-powered Cardinal offense — it was getting those runners across home plate that proved to be their Achilles' heel.
 
After squandering 11 base runners against Northwestern the previous evening, it was like déjà vu for the Cardinals against Johns Hopkins, as Saint Mary's put runners on base in eight of the ninth innings, but could only manage solo runs in the first and ninth innings, while leaving 13 runners on base.
 
"Obviously, this wasn't the way we were hoping this year was going to end, but I'm super proud of this group," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke, who has now guided the Cardinals to 20 or more wins five times in his 13-year tenure. "We tried to enter this game the same way we do every game day — the guys fought hard, it just didn't go our way today.
 
"The key today? Keeping the ball in the park and we would have been in a little better situation," Winecke added. "The nine-hole hitter did a number on us with those two bombs that certainly didn't make things easy on us. But we had a lot of guys on base all day — a lot — we just couldn't get those big hits when we needed them.
 
"But that's baseball, and you have to tip your cap to Johns Hopkins."
 
The Cardinals did not waste any time jumping out to the early lead, scoring once in their very first at-bat.
 
Taylor Anderson (Waukesha, Wis.) — coming off back-to-back four hit games in his first two regional contests — drew a one-out walk, stole second, and scored when Matthews delivered his single-season, program-record 18th double to give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.
 
Saint Mary's threatened to blow the game open in the second, loading the bases on a Liam Belleveau (Middleton, Wis.) lead-off double and back-to-back walks by Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) and Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.). JHU reliever Brian Linton, however, came out of the bullpen to get Anderson to strike out swinging to keep it a one-run game.
 
After coming up empty in their first two at-bats against Cardinal starter Jake Mercado (Belle Plaine, Minn.), the Blue Jays got the junior right-hander in the third, as Jack Pausic belted a 3-2 offering over the fence in left to square the game at 1-1.
 
Mercado notched the second out of the inning on a deep fly out to Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) in left, but Mike Ainsworth drew a two-out walk and A.J. King reached on a Cardinal fielding error to put runners on first and third — and that miscue proved costly, as Jared deFaria laced an opposite-field single to right, scoring Ainsworth to give JHU its first lead of the game, 2-1.
 
And the Blue Jays' bats were just heating up.
 
After Saint Mary's failed to capitalize on a one-out walk by Matthews in the bottom of the third, the JHU offense went back to work, scoring three times in the fourth to push their lead to 5-1.
 
Mark Lopez opened the Blue Jays fourth with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. David Harding followed with JHU's second single of the game to put runners on the corners — and force Winecke to go to his bullpen, bringing on Jonathan Cieminski (Fountain City, Wis.). Pausic welcomed the senior left-hander by depositing his second home run over the left-field fence, this one a three-run shot to give the Blue Jays a four-run cushion.
 
Saint Mary's had three golden opportunities to cut into that JHU lead in the bottom of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings — to no avail.
 
The Cardinals put runners on second and third with one out in the fifth — thanks to an Anderson hit-by-pitch and a double to left-center by Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.). Back-to-back strikeouts by Linton, however, and the Cardinals were left still mired in that four-run hole.
 
Linton worked out of another jam in the sixth, as Belleveau opened the inning with a double — his second lead-off two-bagger of the day. Weber followed with an infield single, but back-to-back strikeouts — the second coming as part of a strikeout-throw out double play — thwarted the threat.
 
And in the seventh, Saint Mary's once again had runners on second and third with one out, only to have Linton pick up yet another strikeout and a lazy fly ball out to center to squash yet another Cardinal rally.
 
Unlike the Cardinals, Johns Hopkins proved very opportunistic, taking advantage of a pair of SMU errors — one fielding and one throwing — to tack on a pair of insurance runs and move the Blue Jays' lead to 7-1.
 
Down to their final three outs, the Cardinals were not about to go down without a fight.
 
Back-to-back singles by O'Brien and Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) got things going for the Cardinals in the ninth, and, after Weinberg lined out to second for the first out, Matthews reached on a JHU fielding error to load the bases. Tepp — the hero of SMU's 15-13 win over Aurora with a two-run home run in the top of the ninth — delivered a run-scoring single to make it 7-2, but once again Linton played Houdini, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning — and the Cardinals' season.
 
Weinberg and Belleveau closed out their collegiate careers with two-hit performances against the Blue Jays, while O'Brien, VanEgtern, Matthews, Tepp, Weber, and Costello all had one hit.
 
The Cardinals close out the season with a program record 30 wins, their first-ever MIAC Playoff title – and numerous single-season and career records.
 
Truly a season to remember.