CAROL STREAM, Ill. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team got off to a slow start in its first game of the day, an 18-4 loss to Aurora Friday afternoon.
 
And it was more of the same in the Cardinals' second game of the day.
 
Wheaton erupted for five first-inning runs, and never looked back in handing the Cardinals a 9-3 setback at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
Less than five hours after surrendering three runs in the opening inning of their loss to Aurora, the Cardinals found themselves staring at a five-run deficit after the teams' opening at-bat against Wheaton.
 
The Thunder lived up to their nickname in their first at-bat against SMU starter Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.), rocking the senior right-hander for five runs on five hits, while also taking advantage of a Cardinal error, in racing out to a 5-0 advantage after one inning.
 
Wheaton extended its lead to 7-0 with a pair of runs in the second inning, before Saint Mary's finally got on track in the top of the third, scoring a pair of runs to cut the deficit to 7-2. Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) got things rolling for the Cardinals in the third with a one-out single. He promptly stole second, and scored easily on Ryan Bauman's (Stratford, Wis.) triple to right-center. Bauman plated SMU's second run of the inning, scoring on a Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) sacrifice fly.
 
From there, however, the Cardinals' offense would be silent, being held to just one hit — an eighth-inning single by Weber — over the next five innings, before parlaying hits by Sam Knickerbocker (Eau Claire, Wis.), Josh Costello (Victoria, Minn.), and Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) into a lone ninth-inning run.
 
Weber and Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) both finished with two of the Cardinals' seven hits, Riley Bauman, Knickerbocker, Csida, and Josh Costello (Victoria, Minn.) accounted for SMU's other four hits.
 
The Cardinals (6-6 overall) will close out their two-day stay at Lee Pfund Stadium in Carol Stream, Ill., on Saturday, squaring off against the University of Dubuque in an 11 a.m. nine-inning nonconference contest.
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