WAVERLY, Iowa — The Saint Mary's University baseball team scored four runs in the first game of its nonconference doubleheader against Wartburg — and lost.
So, it was only fitting that the Cardinals plated fewer runs in the nightcap — and won.
Wartburg, fueled in part by a three-run, first inning, dealt Saint Mary's a 6-4 setback in Game 1 Tuesday afternoon, before the Cardinals salvaged a split, scoring twice in the second and once in the sixth in a 3-2 Game 2 victory.
The Cardinals and Knights brought out the heavy artillery to open Game 1, as Wartburg grabbed a 3-0 first-inning lead with one swing of the bat, as Zach Wesolowski collected the Knights' third straight hit to open the inning — launching a three-run bomb of SMU starter
Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.).
Saint Mary's needed two swings of the bat to knot the game at 3-3 — getting a two-run home run from
Jake Mercado (Belle Plaine, Minn.) in the top of the second and a solo shot by
Brandon Merfeld (La Crosse, Wis.) in the third. The Cardinals added a second run in the third — their first not via a home run — when
Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) to give Saint Mary's a 4-3 lead.
From there, however, the Cardinal offense stalled, while the Knights would tack on a pair of unearned runs in the fourth and another on an RBI groundout by Eliot Jurgensen in the fifth to seal the 6-4 win.
Merfeld and
Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) each had two hits in the opener, while O'Brien, Mercado,
Daniel Marxen (Maple Grove, Minn.), and
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) accounted for the other four hits. Zabel suffered the pitching loss, surrendering six runs — three earned — on 10 hits, while walking four and striking out four.
Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.) had a hand in both of the Cardinals' second-inning runs in the nightcap, as the sophomore laced the second of back-to-back doubles to open the frame — scoring Marxen — before scoring on SMU's second run on a Wartburg balk to give Saint Mary's a 2-0 cushion.
Saint Mary's pushed its lead to 3-0 in the sixth on a Marxen two-out single, and, after Wartburg trimmed the lead to one, 3-2, with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth,
Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) came on in relief of starter
Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) to set the Knights down in order in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the one-run victory.
Weber, Marxen and Coons all put together two-hit games to lead the Saint Mary's offense, while Fischer picked up his second pitching win of the season, allowing two runs on six hits in six innings, with Westcott picking up his third saves with his 1-2-3 seventh.
The Cardinals (6-7 overall) are back in action this weekend, heading first to Carol Stream, Ill.) for an 11 a.m. nonconference game against Wheaton on Saturday, before heading to Montgomery, Ill., to take on Aurora at 4 p.m. that afternoon. Saint Mary's will close out the three-game set with a nonconference game against North Central (Ill;.) on Sunday at 11 a.m. in Naperville, Ill.).
