ST. PAUL, Minn. — It took three different locations, but the Saint Mary's University and St. Scholastica baseball teams finally found a place to play their conference-opening doubleheader.
 
And the third times was definitely the charm for the Cardinals.
 
In a series that was originally scheduled to be played in Duluth, Minn., before being switched to Winona, Minn., and, ultimately landing at Reynolds Field on the campus of the University of Northwestern, Saint Mary's welcomed St. Scholastica to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference by dealing the Saints 6-3 and 8-7 setbacks Sunday afternoon.
 
GAME 1: PLAYING WITH THE LEAD
For just the third time in their first 18 games, the Cardinals pushed across a run in the first inning in the opener, getting an RBI double by Daniel Marxen (Maple Grove, Minn.) for a quick, 1-0 lead.
 
Saint Mary's tacked on two more runs in the second — one on an RBI single by Tyler O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) and the other on Trevon VanEgtern's (La Crosse, Wis.) sacrifice fly — before stretching the lead to 5-0 when Jake Mercado (Belle Plaine, Minn.) launched a two-run home run to right-center in the fifth.
 
Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) scored SMU's sixth unanswered run in the top of the sixth, scoring on a wild pitch, before St. Scholastica made things interesting with three runs in the bottom of the inning.
 
That would be as close as the Saints would get, as Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) came on to work a perfect seventh to earn his second save of the season. Luke Gilbertson (Windom, Minn.) picked up the pitching win, allowing three runs — one earned — on eight hits over the game's first six innings.
 
Marxen and Brandon Merfeld (La Crosse, Wis.) each collected two hits in the opener, with O'Brien, VanEgtern, Mercado and Bauman accounting for the other four hits.
 
GAME 2: HANG ON TIGHT
Saint Mary's opened the nightcap in much the same fashion it started the opener, scoring once in their first at-bat on a Marxen RBI — this one a single up the middle to score O'Brien, who reached on a CSS error to open the game.
 
St. Scholastica answered SMU's first-inning run with one of its own in the bottom of the first, but Saint Mary's regained the lead — this time for good — with two runs in the top of the third.
 
After surrendering a solo run in the bottom of the third, Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) smacked a solo home run to left-center — his first collegiate round-tripper — in the fourth, and RBI doubles by Merfeld and VanEgtern plated three more runs to give Saint Mary's a 7-2 cushion.
 
St. Scholastica erupted for four runs in the bottom of the eighth to whittle the SMU lead to one, 7-6, only to have VanEgtern deliver what turned out to be the game-winning hit — a solo home run to left — in the top of the ninth. CSS would score once in its half of the ninth, but Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam by inducing a groundout to short to seal the win.
 
VanEgtern led the Cardinals' 11-hit attack, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Mercado and Coyle each chipped in two hits. Jordan Zabel (Elgin, Minn.) picked up the pitching win limiting the Saints to two runs on four hits over seven innings. Westcott, meanwhile, collected his team-leading fourth save.
 
The Cardinals (2-0 MIAC, 10-9 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, when they welcome Augsburg to Max Molock Field for a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader.
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