ST. PAUL, Minn. — Coming off a whopping 31 runs in a sweep of Carleton on Friday — beating the Knights 22-2 and 9-3 — the Saint Mary's University baseball team's offense picked up right where it left off in the opening game of its doubleheader against Macalester on Saturday.
Saint Mary's scored nine runs for the second straight game — and needed every one of them, as the Cardinals extended their winning streak to six games with a nail-biting, 9-8 win over the Scots at Nicholson Field.
Unfortunately, the SMU offense ran out of gas in the nightcap, as Macalester snapped the Cardinals' six-game run, scoring nine runs in the first three innings — including five in the third — and icing the win with a second five-run inning in the bottom of the eighth in earning a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference split with a 14-4 victory in Game 2.
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 9, MACALESTER 8
The Cardinals opened Saturday's game against Macalester in much the same fashion as Friday's opener against Carleton — scoring in their first at-bat.
SMU took advantage of a pair of Scots' throwing errors — and scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch. Macalester answered with a solo run in the bottom of the frame to knot the game at 1-1, only to have Saint Mary's turn up the offensive heat in their second at-bat.
The Cardinals erupted for four second-inning runs on six hits — including a run-scoring single by
Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) and two-run single by
Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) — to regain the lead, 5-1.
As was the case in the first, the Scots once again matched the Cardinals' effort in their second at-bat, tagging SMU starter
Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.) — the reigning MIAC Pitcher of the Week — for five runs in the bottom of the second to whittle SMU's lead to one, 5-4.
After a rare scoreless inning in the third, Saint Mary's went back to work in the fourth. With one out,
Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on back-to-back wild pitches, and scored on Weber's infield single to short to put SMU back in front, 6-5.
But the Cardinals weren't finished.
Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) followed Weber's single with one of his own, and a walk to
Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) loaded the bases for
Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.), who laced a two-run single to left and SMU's lead climbed to three, 8-5.
Weber picked up his third hit in four at-bats in the fifth, lacing an RBI double to left-center, scoring
Sam Knickerbocker (Eau Claire, Wis.) — who had reached on a Scot error and moved to second on a wild pitch — with SMU's ninth run of the day.
The Scots, however, would not go away, chipping away at the Saint Mary's lead with a three-run bottom of the sixth — leaving the Cardinals clinging to a 9-8 lead heading to the seventh.
Macalester threatened to extend the game to extra innings, putting the lead-off runner on via a Cardinal error, only to have SMU reliever
Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) induce a pair of groundouts and a game-ending strikeout to preserve the one-run, 9-8 victory.
Weber and
Riley Bauman each finished with three hits to pace the Cardinals' 12-hit offensive attack, while Weber delivered four RBIs and Bauman drove in two. Hochevar picked up his second straight pitching win, scattering eight hits and allowing five runs in five innings of work, with Fischer picking up his first save of the season.
GAME 2: MACALESTER 14, SAINT MARY'S 4
Macalester led from start to finish in the nightcap, getting a solo run in the first inning and three more in the second to race out to a 4-0 advantage.
Saint Mary's got on the board in the top of the third. Weber opened the frame with a single, stole second, and scored on a Coyle RBI single to center. Anderson drew a walk, and, after a
Riley Bauman flyout to center, Cameron Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) walked to load the bases. SMU was unable to capitalize, however, as Scots' starter Ben Levinson wiggled out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts.
Macalester answered SMU's solo run in the top of the third with five in the bottom half of the inning to extend its lead to 9-1. The Cardinals' offense showed signs of life in the seventh — getting a lead-off single from Anderson and a two-run home run off the bat of
Riley Bauman to score a pair of runs, and SMU tacked on a third run on a wild pitch to claw within five, 9-4.
That, however, would be as close as Saint Mary's would get, as Macalester racked up five runs on four hits in the bottom of the eighth to earn the split with the 10-run, 14-4 victory.
Coyle finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Anderson,
Will Boeckman (Big Lake, Minn.), and
Alex Crusan (Bloomington, Minn.) all chipped in two hits to highlight SMU's 13-hit Game 2 attack.
The Cardinals (5-1 MIAC, 12-8 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, when they welcome Augsburg to Max Molock Field for a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader.
