WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team didn't close out the opening game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Bethel quite the way coach Nick Winecke would have liked.
 
But the Cardinals certainly rebounded in impressive fashion.
 
A two-out error led to three Bethel runs in the top of the seventh inning, as the Royals rallied to deal Saint Mary's a 4-2 conference setback in the opener.
 
Fortunately for Winecke, the Cardinals put together an impressive bounce -back performance in the nightcap, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings and cruising to a 9-4 victory and a split Thursday afternoon at Max Molock Field.
 
Saint Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opener, scoring single runs in the second and third — and the Cardinals could do no wrong through the game's first six innings.
 
And then came the seventh.
 
Bethel loaded the bases with two outs on a pair of singles sandwiched around a walk, before scoring three unearned runs — two on an SMU error and another on a single by Keenan Hodgkin — to seal the BU come-from-behind win.
 
The Cardinals finished Game 1 with six hits — coming from six different players. Kodey Kiel (Owatonna, Minn.) suffered the pitching loss in relief, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, but unable to work that same magic in the seventh.
 
Saint Mary's came out firing on all cylinders in Game 2, scoring three times in each of their first two at-bats to grab a quick 6-0 lead. Andy Tepp (Stevens Point, Wis.) laced a two-run single in the Cardinals' three-run first and Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) added a two-run single in SMU's three-run second.
 
The Cardinals pushed their advantage to 7-0 with a solo run in the third, before Bethel finally got on the board with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. SMU got one of those runs back on Weinberg's first home run of the season — a towering solo shot to left — to make it 8-2.
 
Bethel put together its second two-run inning of the game in the sixth, but Saint Mary's iced the win with an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on a Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) RBI single.
 
Tepp led the way for the Cardinal offense in the nightcap, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a pair of runs scored. Weinberg chipped in a 2-for-3, 3-RBI effort, and Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) added a pair of hits and two runs scored.
 
Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) improved to 6-0 on the season, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in five innings of work. Jonathan Cieminski (Fountain City, Wis.) tossed three-innings of scoreless relief, before giving way to Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.), who worked a perfect ninth.
 
Saint Mary's (16-9 MIAC, 22-11 overall) is back in action on Sunday, heading to St. Peter, Minn., for a nine-inning conference game against Gustavus.