WINONA, Minn. — There are plenty of post-season scenarios swirling around the conference with four games remaining in the regular season, with the Saint Mary's University baseball team most definitely in the conversation.
 
One thing, however, was certain — in order for SMU to claim one of the four Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff berths, the Cardinals had to take care of their business in their final two regular-season doubleheaders
 
Beginning Friday against St. Scholastica.
 
Mission accomplished.
 
The Cardinals took the first step toward securing one of those four coveted MIAC Playoff invitations, dealing the Saints 2-0 and 7-3 setbacks at Max Molock Field.
 
The rest of the conference field will close out its conference schedule on Saturday, meaning SMU will know exactly what it needs to do to keep its season alive by the time they step on Concordia's Bucky Burgau Field to face the Cobbers in their final conference twinbill on Monday.
 
GAME 1: SAINT MARY'S 2, ST. SCHOLASTICA 0
The Cardinals struggled to find their offensive rhythm in the opener, managing just two hits — both off the bat of Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) — through the game's first five innings.
 
But then, with Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.) on the mound, the Cardinals had plenty of time to get its offense on track. The senior left-hander scattered six hits — all singles — while not walking a batter and striking out five in the complete-game victory.
 
SMU finally gave their hurler a little run support in the sixth, collecting four of their six hits on the afternoon in plating the game's only two runs.
 
Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) kicked things off for the Cardinals, collecting a one-out infield single. Weber followed with his third straight hit of the day — a picture-perfect bunt down the third-base line — and Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) followed with an RBI single to right. Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) garnered SMU's second bunt single of the inning on a squeeze to score Weber — and give SMU the 2-0 victory.
 
Weber collected three of SMU's six hits — a single in the first, a double in the third, and a single in the sixth — while Csida, Bauman, and Coyle accounted for the other three.
 
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 7, ST. SCHOLASTICA 3
Following the Game 1 "warmup," both teams came out swinging in the nightcap, with St. Scholastica ending its eight-inning scoreless drought with a solo run in the top of the second.
 
Saint Mary's promptly answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame — getting a two-out double from Sam Knickerbocker (Eau Claire, Wis.) to score Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.), who was hit by a pitch, and a run-scoring single by Daniel Sherman (Richfield, Minn.) — to grab an early 2-1 lead.
 
Weber continued to feast on CSS pitching, collecting his fifth consecutive hit to lead off the SMU third and moved to third on a Riley Bauman double. Coyle lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Weber, and extend the Cardinals' lead to 3-1.
 
And the Cardinals were just getting warmed up.
 
Saint Mary's got a lead-off single by Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) and an RBI single from Sherman in the fourth to make it 4-1, before tacking on its second run of the frame on a Saints' throwing error to give SMU a four-run cushion. A second straight CSS throwing error in the fifth plated another Saint Mary's run in the fifth and the Cardinal lead ballooned to 6-1.
 
Tanner Bauman's RBI single in the seventh pushed the SMU cushion to six, 7-1, before the Saints cut into the Cardinals' lead with a two-run eighth,
 
 
 
 
 
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