CAROL STREAM, Ill. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team took two different paths to the same end result — a victory.
The Cardinals scored two runs in their final at-bat to rally for a 3-2, come-from-behind victory over Wheaton in the first game of the team's nonconference doubleheader Monday, before scoring two runs in their first plate appearance — and never relinquishing the lead — en route to a sweep-clinching, 8-2 victory at Lee Pfund Stadium.
Wheaton held the lead twice in Game 1 — and both times, the Cardinals had an immediate answer
The Thunder struck first off Cardinal starter
Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.), getting a two-out, solo home run off the bat of Harrison Stanton in the bottom of the third to stake Wheaton to a 1-0 lead.
A lead that lasted just one batter, as
Daniel Marxen (Maple Grove, Minn.) belted an Alex Vlaisavich offering over the fence in left field for his team-leading third home run of the season — pulling Saint Mary's even 1-1 after four innings.
Wheaton regained the lead in the sixth inning, getting back-to-back, one-out doubles from Ben Weaver and Joe Klein — just the fourth and fifth hits off Hochevar on the afternoon — to give Wheaton a 2-1 advantage.
And once again, Saint Mary's had a quick answer.
Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) kicked-started the Cardinals' seventh-inning rally, delivering a one-out single and moved to second on a throwing error by Vlaisavich.
Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) followed with a run-scoring double to right, scoring Coyle and knotting the game at 2-2. Bauman advanced to third on Brandon Morfeld's (La Crosse, Wis.) ground-out to first, and scored what proved to be the game-winning run on
Tyler O'Brien's (Belle Plaine, Minn.) RBI single to left.
O'Brien finished 2-for-3 with an RBI to pace the Cardinals' five-hit attack in the opener, while Hochevar picked up the pitching win — going six innings and allowed just two runs on five hits.
Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) collected his first collegiate save, tossing a 1-2-3 seventh.
The Cardinals flipped the tables on the Thunder in the nightcap, taking the early lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning, marking just the second time this season — and the first since its season-opening win over Concordia on Feb.17 — that Saint Mary's had scored in its first at-bat.
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) laced a one-out single, and, after Marxen popped out to first for the second out of the first inning,
Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.) launched his first collegiate home run, a two-run bomb to left to give Saint Mary's an early 2-0 lead.
Saint Mary's pushed its lead to 3-0 in the third — thanks to an RBI triple by Weber — but the Thunder chipped away, getting single runs off Saint Mary's starter
Jake Mercado (Belle Plaine, Minn.) in the third and fourth to get within one, 3-2.
Weber gave Saint Mary's a little breathing room with a sacrifice fly in the fifth, scoring Merfeld — who had opened the inning with a double and moved to third on an O'Brien single — and
Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) made it 6-2 one inning later, belting a two-run home run, his second of the season.
After getting the first two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Cardinal reliever
Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.) — who came on in relief of Mercado in the fifth — found himself trying to wiggle out of a bases-loaded jam.
Which is exactly what the sophomore right-hander did, getting Wheaton's Mason Diel to strike out swinging to end the inning — and preserve Saint Mary's four-run lead.
The Cardinals padded their lead to 8-2 in the top of the ninth — thanks to a run-scoring double by Merfeld and a sacrifice fly from
Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) — and Zabel finished his fifth inning of shutout relief in the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory, and the sweep.
Weber, VanEgtern, and Merfeld all collected two hits, with Weber, VanEgtern, and Coons each driving in two runs. Zabel picked up the pitching win, going the final five innings, blanking the Thunder on just three hits.
The Cardinals (8-8 overall) are back in action on Sunday, when they head to Mankato, Minn., for a nonconference doubleheader against Bethany Lutheran. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
