ST. PAUL, Minn. — Getting the lead wasn't the problem for the Saint Mary's University baseball team Sunday afternoon.
Hanging on to that lead, however, was.
The Cardinals scored first in both games of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Hamline, but those leads proved to be short-lived, as the Pipers scored five unanswered runs to beat SMU 5-2 in the opener, then rallied from a 3-0 first-inning lead — then scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning — to complete the sweep with a 5-4 victory in Game 2.
“It was one of those days where both teams played very well, and, unfortunately someone had to come out on the losing end,” said SMU coach
Nick Winecke. “We certainly had our share of (scoring) chances, we just couldn't get that big hit when we needed it.”
SMU raced out to a 2-0 third-inning lead in the opener, getting an RBI groundout from
Zach Olberding (Maplewood, Minn.) and a run-scoring single from
Curt Swanson (Woodbury, Minn.).
The Pipers, however, responded with three runs in the bottom of the third, and two more in the fourth, to seal the win.
Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.) went 2-for-4 with a double, and was the only Cardinal with more than one hit, as SMU collected seven hits off Hamline starter Matt Eickman.
In Game 2, SMU once again got out of the gates quickly, scoring three times in their first at-bat — two coming on
Ryan Archambault's (Faribault, Minn.) two-run double, while
Chris Bogie (St. Paul, Minn.) followed with a single to center to score Archambault.
The Pipers answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to cut the gap to one, 3-2, then recorded their second two-run inning of the game in the third to grab a 4-3 advantage. SMU pulled even in the fifth on an RBI single by Swanson, and the game would remained deadlocked at 4-4 until the bottom of the 11th, when Hamline loaded the bases with one out, and got a walk-off, RBI single through the right side by Tony Rogers.
The Cardinals banged out 11 Game 2 hits, with Swanson, Archambault,
Vince Lulic (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Daniel Geraghty (Chicago, Ill.) collecting two hits each.
The Cardinals, who fall to 4-10 in the MIAC and 11-22 overall, are back in action on Tuesday, playing host to league-leading and nationally ranked St. Thomas in a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.
