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Saint Mary's Cardinals
1-15 MIAC / 7-25 Overall
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Concordia Cobbers
4-8 MIAC / 11-12 Overall |
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Last Action: The Cardinals rebounded from a pair of conference losses to St. Olaf in impressive fashion Thursday, routing Finlandia
10-0 and
16-0 in nonconference play at Max Molock Field. … Concordia, meanwhile, has been off since Tuesday, when the Cobbers were swept by Bethel
5-3 and
9-4 in Moorhead, Minn.
Last Meeting: After letting SMU rally for two wins in the bottom of the seventh inning in 2007, Concordia was able to maintain its two-run, seventh-inning lead in the opener of their conference twinbill a year ago, beating the Cardinals
6-4. The teams returned to their seventh-inning, come-from-behind ways in the nightcap — only this time, it was the Cardinals who fell victim to a late rally, as Concordia scored four times in its final at-bat, erasing a two-run deficit and completing the sweep with a
7-6 victory in Winona, Minn.
Saint Mary’s Cardinal Notes: The Cardinals’ 10-0, 16-0 sweep of Finlandia was a historic performance on a number of different levels: SMU’s 16 Game 2 runs were the most since the Cardinals plated 17 in a
17-4 win over Carleton on April 15, 2007; The last time SMU shut out an opponent was a
6-0 victory over Framingham State on March 17, 2007; The last time the Cardinals won back-to-back games via shutout was 2003, when SMU beat UW-Platteville
8-0 on March 22, then blanked Carleton
6-0 the following day; The last time SMU swept a doubleheader without giving up a run was April 24, 2001, when the Cardinals put up a pair of
5-0 wins vs. Carleton; Finlandia’s two hits in Game 1 were the fewest allowed by Cardinal pitchers since David Baker and #David Dahlstrom combined on a one-hit shutout in a
6-0 win vs. Framingham State on March 17, 2007; The six hits allowed by SMU in Thursday’s DH were the fewest since holding Carleton to three hits in
3-2,
2-1 SMU wins on April 29, 2002. …
Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.) went 7-for-9 vs. the Lions — grounding out in his first and last at-bats, while stringing together seven straight hits in between. … SMU finished the twinbill with 33 hits — including a season-high 20 in Game 2. It was the most hits in a game since SMU banged out 22 in a 15-5 win over Carleton a year ago. …
Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) posted his first collegiate three-hit game vs. the Lions in Game 2, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs. …
John Swenson (Eagan, Minn.) also posted his first collegiate three-hit game with a 3-for-5 Game 2 effort, while also scoring three times. …
Tyler Kruse (Minneapolis, Minn.) delivered his team-leading fourth triple — and 11th extra-base hit — vs. Finlandia. In his first three seasons as a Cardinal, Kruse did not have an extra base hit. … Kruse had at least one hit in each game vs. Finlandia to extend his career-best hitting streak to nine straight. …
Zach Olberding (Maplewood, Minn.) had a streak of five straight at-bats with a hit, going 3-for-3 in Game 2 vs. St. Olaf Tuesday, then going 2-for-2 in Game 1 vs. Finlandia. Olberding grounded out in his first at-bat in Game 2 Thursday, but did finish 1-for-3 and has now hit safely in 24 of the 28 games he’s appeared in this season. … Ryan and Olberding now share the team lead in multiple-hit games with 11, while Olberding and Kruse are the team leaders with five multiple-RBI games each. …
Jack Dwyer (Minneapolis, Minn.), who posted his first collegiate pitching win in Game 2 vs. Bethel last week, posted win No. 2 vs. Finlandia, throwing six innings of one-hit ball, while striking out a career-high seven. … With his two-run home run in the sixth inning of Game 1 vs. Bethel on April 18 , Dwyer became the fifth SMU player to hit his first collegiate home run this season. Kruse (vs. Gustavus),
Ryan Archambault (Faribault, Minn. / vs. Augsburg), Olberding (vs. Monmouth), and
Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn. / vs. Monmouth) are the other four. All nine of SMU’s home runs have been hit by players with a combined total of zero home runs prior to this season. … Olberding leads the team in batting average (.416), hits (37), home runs (3), RBIs (19), and slugging percentage (.573). … Ryan, who shares the team lead with 37 hits, boasts team highs in at-bats (107) and stolen bases (14). … The Cardinals have stolen 34 bases this season. …
Matt Wilgenbusch (Durango, Iowa) notched his first win of the season in Game 2 vs. Finlandia, scattering four hits in five innings. …
Ben Thone (Woodbury, Minn.) made his first collegiate pitching appearance vs. the Lions, striking out two in one inning of work. …
Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.) played three different positions in Game 2 vs. St. Olaf Tuesday, starting at second, moving to third, and pitching the final two-thirds of the seventh inning. Haugh, who had never pitched collegiately, allowed one hit, while walking one and striking out one. …
Andy Pass (Prescott, Wis.) leads the team in complete games (2), innings pitched (27.2) and strikeouts (19). … SMU has surrendered 39 first-inning runs — including five vs. St. Olaf on Tuesday — and is 1-14 when its opponent scores in the first inning. … SMU has scored six or more runs in all seven of their wins. The Cardinals are 1-21 when being held to five runs or less.
Concordia Cobber Notes: Today’s DH vs. Saint Mary’s is the first of three doubleheaders in four-day span for the Cobbers, who are coming off an eight-game in five-day stretch that ended with Tuesday’s losses to Bethel. … Kyle Johnson went 4-for-4 in Tuesday’s DH vs. Bethel and clouted his league-leading ninth home run of the year. He is now three HR's shy of breaking the single-season school record of 11 set by Ryan Hebrink in 2004. Johnson upped his slugging percentage in conference games to an unthinkable 1.114. … Johnson now leads the team in virtually every offensive category, including average (.424), hits (28), doubles (8), home runs (9), total bases (63), slugging percentage (.955), walks (17) and on-base percentage (.558). … The top five players in the batting order combined to go 12-for-33 (.363) vs. Bethel. They also scored all seven runs and drove in all seven runs. … Adam Johnson leads the Cobber pitching staff, throwing 28.0 innings en route to a 4.82 earned-run-average and a 1-3 record. He has also thrown two of the team’s four complete games and has struck out 18. … The Cobbers are 3-0 when holding their opponents to two runs or less, but are winless (0-7) when failing to score more than two runs. … Concordia has not won a game in which it has trailed after six innings (0-10) and are 9-1 when leading heading into the seventh.