AUBURNDALE, Fla. — There would be no eight-run inning, or 16-run performance — and, unfortunately for the Saint Mary's baseball team, there would be no victory, either.
Coming off a 16-7 rout over Rose-Hulman on Thursday, a win that included an eight-run second inning, the Cardinals were limited to six hits and four runs — while leaving the game-tying run and third and the potential winning run at second — in falling to Milwaukee School of Engineering Friday afternoon.
The Raiders jumped out to the early advantage, scoring three times in the bottom of the first and adding another in the second for a quick, 4-0 cushion.
The Cardinals would claw their way back to within one, 4-3 — scoring once in the second and twice more in the seventh.
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) and
Jack Arndt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) led off the SMU sixth with back-to-back singles to put runner s on first and third, and, one out later, Weber scored on an RBI ground by
Ben Coons (Kimberly, Wis.). Saint Mary's took advantage of a pair of MSOE errors to score its two runs in the seventh — with
Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) plating one of the unearned runs on a sacrifice fly, and Weber adding unearned run No. 2 with a two-out single.
The Raiders pushed their lead back to two, 5-3, with a solo run in the bottom half of the seventh, but the Cardinals weren't finished, putting together what appeared to be a big inning in the ninth — only to come up one run short.
Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) — who was hit by a pitch to open the ninth — got the Cardinals within one, 5-4, scoring on a one-out MSOE error on a ball hit by O'Brien. Weber followed with a single and moved to second on the throw in the Raiders' attempt to get O'Brien at third.
Unfortunately, neither O'Brien nor Weber would advance any further, as Raiders' reliever Joseph Teschke induced a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat — and the game.
Weber accounted for three of the Cardinals' six hits, finishing 3-for-5 with a run scored, while Coons went 2-for-4 and Arndt accounted for SMU's sixth hit.
The Cardinals close out their spring trip on Saturday, squaring off against Northwestern (Minn.) in a nonconference doubleheader in Auburndale, Fla. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. EST.
