AUBURNDALE, Fla. — If Sunday's season-opener is any indication of what to expect in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this season, buckle up — it's going to be a wild ride.
 
The Saint Mary's and Concordia baseball teams kicked off the 2022 season with a nonconference game — and combined for 25 hits and 24 runs in nine innings of action.
 
Fortunately for coach Nick Winecke, 14 of those 25 runs were scored by his Cardinals, as Saint Mary's opened its spring trip with a wild, 14-10 victory at Lake Myrtle Park.
 
"It was good to get back on the field and play," said Winecke, whose Cardinals are coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance a year ago. … It wasn't the prettiest game, but I was very proud of how we battled and stuck with the game."
 
The two teams did not waste any time producing runs, as the Cobbers scored once in their first at-bat, while the Cardinals answered with three in their half of the first. Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) belted an RBI triple and Daniel Marxen (Maple Grove, Minn.) laced a two-run double to account for SMU's three first-inning runs.
 
The teams trade runs, Concordia's in the second and Saint Mary's in the third, before combining for nine runs in the fifth inning — CC scoring five times and SMU four — to whittle the Cardinals' lead to one, 8-7. Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) had the big hit for the Cardinals in the fourth, belting a two-run double.
 
Saint Mary's added a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to push its lead to 10-7, but the Cobbers came storming back, plating three runs in the top of the eighth to pull even, 10-10.
 
The tie lasted just four batters, as Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.) put the Cardinals ahead to stay with a two-out double. A bases-loaded walk and a Marxen two-run single sealed the season-opening win.
 
Marxen was the only Cardinal with more than one hit, finishing 2-for-4 with four RBIs, while VanEgtern, Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.), Jack Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.), O'Brien, Bob Tilot (Pulaski, Wis.), Coons, Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.), and Brandon Merfeld (La Crosse, Wis.) all had one hit.
 
Timmy Smith (South St. Paul, Minn.) picked up the pitching win — the first of his collegiate career — allowing three runs (one earned) on five hits in four innings of relief. Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) notched his first save as a Cardinals with a scoreless ninth.

The Cardinals (1-0 overall) are right back in action on Monday, squaring off against Grove City (11 a.m. EST) and Rose-Hulman (2:15 p.m. EST) in a pair of nine-inning nonconference games.
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