MOORHEAD, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University baseball team stepped on the field Monday afternoon for its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Concordia, the Cardinals' road to the MIAC Playoffs was crystal clear.
 
Win and they are in.
 
Fortunately for SMU, the conference was holding a 2-for-1 special for the Cardinals — win just one of Monday's two games against the Cobbers, and punch their ticket to the four-team double-elimination post-season tournament, which kicks off Thursday at CHS Field.
 
And it was the "two" in that 2-for-1 special that the Cardinals took advantage of, bouncing back from a 6-2 Game 1 loss to beat the Cobbers 7-1 in the nightcap and claim that fourth and final MIAC Playoff spot.
 
Saint Mary's will join St. Olaf, Saint John's, and Bethel in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday, with the Cardinals squaring off against the regular-season champion Oles in the first game of the day at 2:30 p.m. SJU and Bethel will play the second game on Thursday with a 7 p.m. start.
 
Saint Mary's will be making its seventh MIAC Playoff appearance, and first since 2021 — when the Cardinals earned the programs first-ever playoff title. SMU has also appeared the MIAC Playoffs in ?2001, 2002, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021.
 
GAME 1: CONCORDIA 6, SAINT MARY'S 2
The Cardinals weren't messing around in the opener, grabbing the momentum from the get-go, scoring a pair of runs in their very first at-bat.
 
Ryan Csida (Kimberly, Wis.) led off the game with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a fielder's choice groundout, and scored the game's first run on a Brinton Anderson (Pulaski, Wis.) single to left. Sam Knickerbocker (Eau Claire, Wis.) followed with a two-out single to give SMU the quick 2-0 advantage.
 
Unfortunately, that would be the end of the Cardinals' Game 1 run production. Despite collecting seven hits in the game's final six innings, Saint Mary's was unable to scratch across a third run.
 
Concordia, meanwhile, answered SMU's two-run first with a solo run in the second, and plated four more in the fourth — three coming on a bases-clearing double by David Dorsey – to give the Cobbers their first lead of the game 5-2.
 
Thomas Horan launched a solo home run to right with one out in the fifth to extend the CC lead to 6-2, and the Cardinals could not manufacture a late-game comeback in setting up a do-or-die Game 2.
 
Cam Miller (Kimberly, Wis.) fueled the SMU 10-hit attack, going 3-for-3, while Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) chipped in a pair of hits, and Csida, Anderson, Knickerbocker, and Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) accounted for the other four Cardinal hits.
 
GAME 2: SAINT MARY'S 7, CONCORDIA 1
For the second game in a row, the Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead, snapping its eight-inning scoreless drought with a pair of runs in the top of the third inning — both with two outs.
 
Csida reached on a Cobber fielding error, stole second, and scored on a Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) single to right. Weber moved to second on Riley Bauman's single through the left side, and plated SMU's second run of the frame on an Anderson single to right.
 
Both teams threatened in the sixth — but it would the Cobbers who would cash in on that threat.
 
SMU got Coyle to third on a single, stolen base and sacrifice bunt, only to fail to get the senior across home plate. Concordia, meanwhile, put runners at the corners with two outs — and got a pinch-hit RBI single by Blake Vagle to get CC within on, 2-1.
 
Cardinal reliever Andrew Fischer (La Crosse, Wis.) wiggled out of a seventh-inning jam, getting Dylan Gertken to strike out looking with the tying run on second base to preserves SMU's one-run advantage.
 
The Cardinals gave Fischer a little breathing room in the eighth, thanks to a lead-off single by Riley Bauman, who was sacrificed to second and, following a walk to Coyle, scored on a Knickerbocker single to left. Coyle scored SMU's second run of the inning on a Tanner Bauman (Willmar, Minn.) squeeze bunt to extent SMU's lead to 4-1.
 
The Cardinals did their two-run eighth inning one better in the ninth, scoring three times — highlighted by an Anderson RBI single, a run-scoring double by Coyle, and an RBI groundout by Tanner Bauman — to give Fischer a six-run cushion heading to the bottom of the ninth.
 
And Fischer promptly mowed down the Cobbers in order to seal his team-leading fifth save — and send the Cardinals into the post-season.
 
SMU had four players — Csida, Riley Bauman, Anderson, and Coyle — record two hits, while Weber, Knickerbocker, Tanner Bauman, and Patrick Schork (Janesville, Wis.) collected the Cardinals' other four hits.
 
TJ Bergland (Farmington, Minn.) earned the pitching win, blanking the Cobbers on two hits in five innings of work, with Fischer surrendering just one run on four hits over four innings of relief.
 
With the sweep, Saint Mary's improved to 13-7 in conference play, and 20-16 overall, and will head into MIAC Playoff action riding a four-game winning streak.
 
 
 
 
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