AUBURNDALE, Fla. — After racking up 23 runs in their first two games — including a 9-7 win over Grove City in their first game of the day on Monday — the Saint Mary's University baseball team's offense took the afternoon off in the Cardinals' second game of the day.
 
The Cardinals banged out eight hits and used a pair of three-run innings en route to their 9-7 victory against Grove City in their first game of the day, but Saint Mary's was held to seven hits — and shut out over the game's final six innings — in dropping an 8-5 decision to Rose-Hulman at Lake Mrytle Park.
 
"We played with fire a little bit today — putting too many runners on base — and you know what happens when you play with fire … eventually you are going to get burned," said Saint Mary's coach Nick Winecke. "Overall, I thought we did some good things, but we also made some mistakes that we can't afford to be making.
 
"This is a very young group — and there are going to be some mistakes along the way. We just have to minimize them.
 
Grove City took the early lead on the Cardinals, tagging SMU starter Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) for three runs on two hits in the top of the third inning, only to have Saint Mary's answer with a solo run in the bottom of the third on a Jack Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) RBI ground-out and three more in the third — one on a Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) single and two more off the bat of Arndt.
 
 Grove City pulled even, 4-4, with a solo runs in the fifth, before Saint Mary's put together its second three-run inning of the game in the sixth. Arndt drove in his fourth run of the game with a single, and Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) added a two-run double, to give the Cardinals a 7-4 lead.
 
The teams traded two-run innings in the eighth — Saint Mary's plating its two runs without the benefit of a hit — and Grove City cut the Cardinal lead to two, 9-7, with a single run in the top of the ninth, but Cardinal closer Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) closed the door for his second save in as many days.
 
Arndt enjoyed a career day at the plate for the Cardinals, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and five RBIs, while O'Brien finished 2-for-5. The duo accounted for five of the team's eight hits, with VanEgtern, Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.), and Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.) collecting the other three.
 
Keegan Majerus (Pine Island, Minn.) picked up the pitching win, allowing two unearned runs on four hits in 3 ½ innings of relief.
 
Saint Mary's appeared to be well on its way to its third straight spring trip victory in the nightcap against Rose-Hulman, scoring once in the second inning and adding four more in the bottom of the third — highlighted by a bases-clearing triple by Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) — to take a 4-1 advantage.
 
The lead did not last long, however, as the Fightin' Engineers answered by putting up five runs in the top of the fourth inning and adding two more in the seventh to lock up the 8-5 victory.
 
VanEgtern was the only Cardinal with more than one hit against Rose-Hulman, going 2-for-5, while Coyle, Weber, Arndt, Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.), and Sam Schneider (St. Joseph, Minn.) accounted for SMU's other five hits.
 
The Cardinals (2-1 overall) are now off until Wednesday, when the square off against the University of Dubuque in a nine-inning nonconference game at Northeast Regional Park in Davenport, Fla. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. EST.  
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