WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University baseball team did something no other conference team had been able to do this season — hand St. Olaf a loss.
 
The Oles entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader sporting a perfect 6-0 mark — having dispatch of Concordia, Augsburg, and St. Scholastica by a combined score of 44-12.
 
The Cardinals, however, were unimpressed.
 
Saint Mary's erupted for 12 runs — including seven in the bottom of the sixth inning — in dealing the Oles their first MIAC loss of the season with a 12-4 Game 1 victory at Max Molock Field.
 
It was another high-scoring late inning that proved to be the difference in the nightcap — but this time it would be the Oles who came up big late. St. Olaf scored three runs in the top of the ninth in holding off SMU 7-4 to salvage the split.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 12, ST. OLAF 4
Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) got the Cardinals off and running in the top of the first, as the SMU lead-off hitter laced a single to cap an 11-pitch at bat, and promptly stole second, Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) was hit by a pitch, and two were moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.). One out later, Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) came through with a clutch, two-run single to give Saint Mary's the early 2-0 lead.
 
Saint Mary's added to its lead in their second at-bat, loading the bases with one out, and getting an RBI groundout by Csida to score Sam Knickerbocker (Eau Claire, Wis.) from third with SMU's third run of the game.
 
St. Olaf tagged SMU starter Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.) for a run in the top of the third, but Saint Mary's answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth — both with two outs. Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) jump-started the two-out rally with an infield single and moved to second on a walk to Daniel Sherman (Excelsior, Minn.). Csida was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Weber delivered a two-run single down the left-field line to give SMU a 5-1 lead.
 
Down by four, the Oles refused to throw in the towel, answering SMU's two-run inning with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth to whittle the SMU lead down to two, 5-3.
 
In the blink of an eye, however, Saint Mary's lead ballooned to nine, as the Cardinals scored seven times in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Tanner Bauman kicked off the inning with a lead-off double, moved to third on an infield single by Sherman, and scored on a single by Csida. A sacrifice fly by Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) plated SMU's second run of the inning and Saint Mary's headed to the seventh owning a 12-3 advantage. A St. Olaf throwing error allowed two more SMU runs to cross home plate, while Will Boeckman (Big Lake, Minn.) made it 11-3 with a two-out, two-run single, and Tanner Bauman chipped in an RBI single to cap the seven-run outburst.
 
St. Olaf scratched across one run in the top of the seventh, but it was far too little, too late.
 
Tanner Bauman led the Cardinals' 13-hit offensive attack, go9nig 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, while Csida, Riley Bauman, and Sherman all chipped in two hits. Hochevar improved to 3-3 on the year, going the first six innings — allowing three runs on seven hits, while walking one and striking out two.
 
GAME 2: ST. OLAF 7, SAINT MARY'S 4
After a scoreless first, the Cardinals struck in the second, scoring twice — both with two outs. Boeckman got things rolling with a two-out single, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored on Tanner Bauman's stand-up triple to right. Sherman followed with a single to right to score Bauman – and give Saint Mary's the early 2-0 lead.
 
St. Olaf cut the SMU lead in half in the top of the third, parlaying three hits into a single run to get the Oles within one, 2-1, and pulled even with another solo run in the top of the fifth, only to have Saint Mary's regain the upper hand in the bottom of the frame on a sacrifice fly by Weber.
 
The Oles took their first lead of the afternoon in the seventh, opening the inning with three straight hits and scoring a pair of runs to jump in front 4-3.
  
Saint Mary's had the game-tying run thrown out at home in the bottom of the eighth, and St. Olaf tacked on three insurance runs in the top of the ninth to push its lead to 7-3. SMU again threatened in their final at-bat, getting an RBI single by Csida, only to strand runners at the corners in dropping the nightcap.
 
Csida, Boeckman, Tanner Bauman, and Sherman all had two hits for the Cardinals, while Anderson and Weber collected SMU's other two hits. With his first-inning stolen base, Weber became the program's single-season stolen base leader with 24, surpassing Willie Doll '16, who swiped a then-program-record 23 bases in 2014.
 
The Cardinals (7-1 MIAC, 14-8 overall) return to Max Molock Field on Wednesday, when they play host to Gustavus in a 2:30 p.m. MIAC doubleheader.
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