WINONA, Minn. — Scoring runs had not been a problem for the Saint Mary's University baseball team this season, while keeping teams from scoring runs had been a big problem for Augsburg.
 
The Cardinals entered their conference doubleheader against Augsburg having already plated 128 run in their first 20 games.
 
The Auggies, meanwhile, had surrendered at least six runs in all 18 of their games this season — including 10 or more runs in each of their last three games, and nine times overall.
 
Saint Mary's could only add five runs its 128-run total against the suddenly stingy Auggies — but five runs was all the Cardinals would need in posting 2-1 and 3-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victories at Max Molock Field.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 2, AUGSBURG 1
The Cardinals and Auggies traded first-inning runs — Augsburg's coming on a single to right by Marshall in the top of the frame, while SMU answered with an unearned run, scoring on a Auggie throwing error.
 
Saint Mary's took its first lead of the game in its second at-bat when Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) beat out a two-out, infield single to plate Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) with what proved to be the final run of the contest.
 
And with the dynamic duo of Eric Stomberg (St. Paul, Minn.) and Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) on the hill, two runs would be all the Cardinals would need.
 
Stomberg went the first four innings, allowing just the lone first-inning run and scattering three hits, while Fischer worked three scoreless innings of two-hit relief to notch his third save of the season.
 
Miller finished a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, with Csida chipping in two hits, and Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) and Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) each adding one.
 
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 3, AUGSBURG 2
As good as Stomberg and Westcott were in Game 1, Dylan Westcott (Holmen, Wis.) was equally as good in the nightcap. Forced to come on two batters into the game due to an injury to starter Maddox Cejka (Prairie du Chien), Westcott turned in a masterful 7 2/3 innings, limiting Augsburg to two runs – one earned — on five hits.
 
While Westcott was doing his part to limit the Auggies to single runs in the third and eighth innings, the Cardinals would score once in the first and twice in the seventh en route to the sweep-clinching victory.
 
Riley Bauman drove in SMU's first-inning run on an RBI ground-out, and Weber laced a clutch, two-run single to center in the seventh to give Saint Mary's the lead for good.
 
Weber and Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) both collected two hits, while six other Cardinals accounted for SMU's other six hits, and Mason Windschitl (Excelsior, Minn.) picked up his first collegiate save, working a scoreless ninth.
 
The Cardinals (7-1 MIAC, 14-8 overall) are back in action on Saturday, when they return to Max Molock Field to entertain St. Olaf in a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader.
 
 
 
 
 
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