LA CROSSE, Wis. — Less than 24 hours after plating a whopping 12 runs in a heartbreaking 13-12, 10-inning loss to UW-Stout, the Saint Mary's University baseball team's offense pick an inopportune time to take a day off.
 
Coming off their sixth 10+ run performance — not to mention 13 hits, including season-highs with four doubles and three home runs — Saint Mary's could only muster a pair of runs on four hits in falling to the 12th-ranked Eagles 12-2 Wednesday afternoon at Copeland Park.
 
Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) — who finished a perfect 4-for-4 in Tuesday's 10-inning loss to UW-Stout — picked up right where he left off against the Eagles, delivering a lead-off single in the top of the first, only to be wiped out on a groundball double play.
 
Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) — who did Csida one better by going 5-for-5 against the Blue Devils on Tuesday — collected his sixth consecutive hit with a two-out first-inning double, but was thrown out trying to steal third after a Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) walk.
 
Saint Mary's starter TJ Bergland (Farmington, Minn.) faced just four batters in the first inning, surrendering a lone two-out single, but the Eagles weren't so kind to reliever Tyson Allen-Woodcock (Eau Claire, Wis.), roughing up the sophomore for three runs on two hits — while also taking advantage of two Cardinal miscues — to grab a 3-0 lead after two innings.
 
Csida once again reached in his second at-bat, delivering his second single of the game — and sixth consecutive hit — with two outs in the third, but he was left stranded, as UW-L starter Chayce Osterhaus got Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) to strike out to end the frame.
 
UW-L extended its lead to 5-0 in the third, scoring twice on a pair of passed balls, and in the fourth, the Eagles finally found a way to keep Bauman from recording his seventh consecutive hit — by walking the SMU junior to lead off the inning.
 
And the Cardinals made UW-L pay for that lead-off walk.
 
Coyle followed with SMU's second straight free pass, and, after a Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) fly ball out to right, Bauman scored SMU's first run of the game on a UW-L error. Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) followed with a single to center to plate SMU's second run of the inning, and get the Cardinals within three, 5-2.
 
The UW-L lead ballooned back to five in the Eagles' half of the fourth, as they capitalized on two Cardinal errors to push the lead to 7-2, before plating solo runs in the fifth and sixth to push the lead to 9-2.
 
After blanking the Eagles for just the second time in the seventh, the Eagles iced their 10-run win with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
 
Csida finished with two of SMU's four hits against three UW-L pitchers, while Bauman and Miller accounted for the other two. Csida and Bauman both had their streaks of reaching base safely snapped in the fifth, with Csida striking out and Bauman flying out to left.
 
The Cardinals (17-13 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a pair of doubleheaders this weekend. SMU heads to Arden Hills, Minn., for a 1 p.m. twinbill against Bethel on Saturday, before continuing on to Moorhead, Minn., to play a pair of games against Concordia, with first pitch also slated for 1 p.m.
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