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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University baseball team entered Tuesday’s Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against St. Olaf flying high, having snapped a season-high 17-game losing streak with their first conference win of the season, a 6-3 decision over Bethel last Saturday.
St. Olaf, meanwhile, arrived in Winona having dropped three of their last four — while Ole pitchers had surrendered 10 or more runs in their previous three contests.
The momentum should have been on the Cardinals’ side.
Should have.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals could not figure out St. Olaf’s pitchers — managing just 11 hits and seven runs against a staff that was giving up runs by the boatloads.
The Oles, meanwhile, feasted on SMU pitching, battering whoever coach Nick Winecke sent to the mound — including starting second baseman
Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.), who pitched a scoreless seventh in Game 2 in his first-ever collegiate pitching appearance — to the tune of 34 hits and 28 runs in a 13-1, 15-6 St. Olaf sweep.
St. Olaf jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead in the opener, and the Oles never took their foot off the gas, scoring four times in the fourth, twice in the fifth and five times in the sixth in cruising to the Game 1 victory.
Andrew Warren (Stillwater, Minn.) accounted for SMU’s lone run ¬— lacing a one-out, RBI single to center in the fifth inning off St. Olaf starter Alex Sommer, who held the Cardinals to just four hits, all singles, while striking out three.
St. Olaf banged out 20 hits off four SMU hurlers in Game 1, including four doubles, a triple and a home run.
And the Oles were just getting warmed up.
After putting at least one runner on base in all seven innings — while scoring at least one run in four of the seven Game 1 innings — the Oles did themselves one better in Game 2. St. Olaf again put at least one runner on base in every inning in the nightcap, but this time, the Oles were held without a run just once, scoring single runs in the first and second, before adding four runs in the third, two in the fourth, five in the fifth and two in the seventh.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, managed a single run in the fourth, before exploding for five runs in the sixth — highlighted by a two-run double off the bat of
Tyler Kruse (Minneapolis, Minn.).
By that time, however, it was too little, too late.
The Oles once again made the pitching mound a revolving door for SMU hurlers in the nightcap, collecting 14 hits — including four doubles and three home runs — off six Cardinal pitchers.
SMU (1-15, 5-25) steps out of conference play on Thursday, playing host to Finlandia in a nonconference doubleheader at Max Molock Field, before returning to MIAC action Saturday at Concordia.