WINONA, Minn. — It was a perfect combination of pitching and hitting for the Saint Mary's University baseball team in the opening game of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Gustavus Thursday afternoon.
 
Eric Stomberg (St. Paul, Minn.) took care of the pitching, tossing five innings of one-hit ball — the lone hit a fifth-inning single — while Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) delivered a 3-for-4, four-RBI performance at the plate in leading Saint Mary's 14-hit attack in SMU's 13-0 Game 1 victory at Max Molock Field.
 
Pitchers did their part for the Cardinals in the nightcap as well, as Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) and Jack Schafer (Brainerd, Minn.) limited the Gusties to four runs on eight hits. Unfortunately, SMU's offense could have used a few of its Game 1 runs — managing just one run on four hits — in falling to the Gusties 4-1.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 13, GUSTAVUS 2
Stomberg opened the game with four straight strikes — resulting in a strikeout and a fly out to center — before walking the next three batters he faced to load the bases. Stomberg worked out of the early jam, inducing Kohls to fly out to center to end the threat.
 
The Cardinals broke a scoreless pitchers' duel in the bottom of the third, taking advantage of their first two hits of the game and a pair of Gustie errors to score three times, before getting a clutch, one-out, two-run single by Daniel Sherman (Richfield, Minn.) to extend the SMU lead to 5-0 after four complete.
 
After four hitless innings, the Gusties finally got to Stomberg in the fifth on a one-out single by Sam Schneider. Back-to-back walks one out later had Stomberg facing his second bases-loaded jam, and once again the sophomore right-handed wiggled out unscathed — thanks to a diving web-gem by Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) on a line drive destined for left field by GAC's Chris Knowles.
 
Anderson padded the Cardinal lead to 6-0 with a solo home run in the home half of the fifth — his first collegiate round-tripper — and highlighted SMU's seven-run sixth with a one-out, two-run single, as Saint Mary's lead ballooned to 13-0.
 
Gustavus racked up a pair of seventh-inning runs off SMU reliever Mason Windschitl (Excelsior, Minn.), who came on in relief of Stomberg to open the sixth, but that would be all the offense the Gusties could muster.
 
Anderson and Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) led the Cardinals' 14-hit attack, each collecting three hits, while Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) and Sherman chipped in two hits. Stomberg improved to 5-1 with the pitching win, allowing just the lone fifth-inning single, whiel walking five and striking out two.
 
GAME 2: GUSTAVUS 4, SAINT MARY'S 1Gustavus jumped on SMU starter Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) for a pair of runs on two hits in the first inning, but the Cardinals would answer with a solo run in the second on a wild pitch to cut the GAC led in half.
 
The Gusties regained their two-run advantage with an unearned run in the third, and added another unearned tally in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 4-1.
 
Saint Mary's threatened in its final at-bat in the bottom of the ninth, with Tanner Bauman and Patrick Schork (Janesville, Wis.) both drawing walks to open the inning, putting runners on first and second with no one out. Unfortunately, that's where the duo would remain, as GAC wiggled out the jam, inducing a flyout, fielder's choice ground out, and a strikeout to end the game.
 
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) accounted for two of the Cardinals' four hits in the nightcap, with Riley Bauman and Will Boeckman (Big Lake, Minn.) collecting the other two.
 
The Cardinals (9-3 MIAC, 16-9 overall) are back in action on Saturday, when they head to Saint Joh's Becker Park in Collegeville, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference doubleheader against the Johnnies.
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