ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — It's been a week of heartbreak for the Saint Mary's University baseball team.
 
The Cardinals, who suffered a 13-12 loss to UW-Stout last Tuesday — a game in which SMU belted a two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to take a 12-10 lead, only to surrender a walk-off three-run round-tripper in the bottom of the frame — suffered a similar fate in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against Bethel.
 
After Saint Mary's rallied from a 5-0 deficit — thanks to a five-run sixth that knotted the game at 5-5 — the Royals dashed the Cardinals' comeback bid, scoring what proved to be the game-winning run on a Cardinal error in the bottom of the eighth inning in dealing SMU a 6-5 setback.
 
BU had opened the day scoring single runs in three straight innings en route to a 3-0 victory over the Cardinals at Hargis Park.
 
GAME 1: BETHEL 3, SAINT MARY'S 0
The Royals got on the board first in the bottom of the third, scoring a solo run off SMU starter Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.), and threatened to break things open in the fourth, loading the bases — thanks to a single, a walk and a hit batsmen — with no one out.  Hochevar, however, wiggled out of the jam allowing just one run — inducing a pair of fly ball outs and a groundout to keep SMU within two, 2-0.
 
Bethel put together its third straight one-run inning in the fifth, getting a two-out RBI double from Carson Christiansen to extend the Royal advantage to 3-0.
 
After managing just one hit — a Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) single — through the gamge's first six innings, the Cardinals got back-to-back one-out singles by Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) and Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) off Solfest in the seventh. Solfest promptly induced a strikeout and a fly out to end the threat — and the game.
 
Hochevar was the hard-luck loser for the Cardinals, tossing a complete game six-hitter, while walking one and striking out four in falling to 4-4 on the season.
 
GAME 2: BETHEL 6, SAINT MARY'S 5 
After scoring solo runs in each of their three final at-bats to close out Game 1, the Royals picked up right where they left off to kick off Game 2, mixing two hits and an SMU error into a 2-0 first-inning lead.
 
Bethel collected its second consecutive two-run inning in the second — scoring on a sacrifice fly and an Eric Stomberg (St. Paul, Minn.) wild pitch — to make it a 4-0 BU lead, before returning to its one-run ways in the fourth to push the advantage to 5-0
 
After being held scoreless through the first 12 innings of the doubleheader, the Cardinals broke out of their offensive doldrums in a big way in the sixth, scoring five times to pull even, 5-5.
Weber opened the inning with a lead-off walk, and trotted around the bases in front of Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.), who launched his team-leading sixth home run of the season to center field to get SMU within three, 5-2. Nikolai Niemela (Cokato, Minn.) drew a one-out walk, and a two-out Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) single put runners on the corners. Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) plated Niemela with a single up the middle and Daniel Sherman (Richfield, Minn.) added a run-scoring double to score both Miller and Tanner Bauman to draw the Cardinals even, 5-5.
 
That, however, would be the extent of SMU's run production, as the Cardinals were set down in order in both the eighth and ninth.
 
Riley Bauman and Tanner Bauman each finished with two hits for the Cardinals, while Niemela, Miller, and Sherman accounted for SMU's other three hits.
 
The Cardinals (10-6 MIAC, 17-15 overall) are now off until Friday, when they play host to St. Scholastica in a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader at Max Molock Field. SMU will then round out its regular-season schedule with a 1 p.m. twinbill against Concordia Monday, May 6 in Moorhead, Minn.
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