| GameDay Preview
MINNETONKA, Minn. — If the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team has proven one thing over the last seven days, it's that the Cardinals are at their best when their backs are against the wall.
When pushed to the brink of elimination the Cardinals come out swinging — hard.
Last Sunday, Saint Mary's needed at least one win in its conference doubleheader against Bethel to keep their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament hopes alive — and they won two.
Two days later, the Cardinals needed at least one win in its MIAC twinbill against St. Olaf to lock up its third straight post-season invitation — and they won two.
Saturday afternoon, facing a conference tournament win-or-go-home elimination game, the Cardinals needed a victory against Saint John's to keep their season alive — and they got it.
And it was only fitting that three Cardinal seniors — playing in the conference tournament rather than participating in Saint Mary's graduation ceremony back in Winona — led the charge.
Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) blasted a first-inning, solo home run, Taylor Thelemann (Bloomington, Minn.) delivered a run-scoring single in the sixth — not to mention an acrobatic diving stop from his shortstop position in the fifth — and Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.) had two of SMU's seven hits in the Cardinals' 3-0 victory over the Johnnies.
With the win, the Cardinals — who are 7-1 in their last eight games — will face the loser of Saturday's 2 p.m. winner's bracket game between Bethel and top-seeded St. Thomas at 6 p.m. at Veteran's Field.
At about the same time most of his fellow senior classmates were settling in for the 11 a.m. commencement ceremonies, Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) made his presence felt early on at Veteran's Field.
Gannon single-handedly put the Cardinals on the board first in the bottom of the opening inning, drilling a Patrick Strey offering over the left-center field fence for his first home run of the season to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 first-inning advantage.
SJU threatened with two outs in the second, as a single, hit-batsman and a passed ball put runners on second and third, but Cardinal starter Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) struck out Luke Larson to end the threat and preserve Saint Mary's one-run lead.
The Cardinals looked to be in perfect position to pad their lead in the fifth, getting a single by LaNasa, while Gannon was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with two outs — and leading hitter Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) at the plate.
Buerkle did his part, lacing a single to right field, but a perfect throw from SJU outfielder Joe Lampe to catcher Gabe McDonald gunned LaNasa down at the plate to thwart the threat.
SMU did break through in the sixth — and once again, it was a Cardinal senior doing the damage.
Thelemann — who made a SportsCenter top 10 diving catch of a Johnnie liner in the fifth — pushed Saint Mary's lead to 2-0 with a two-out single up the middle, scoring Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.), who had led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a groundout by Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.).
Miley then tacked on another Saint Mary's run, belting the Cardinals' second home run of the day — and his second of the season — with a towering, one-out place in the eighth.
Scatassa gave the Cardinals exactly what coach Nick Winecke needed — a stellar pitching performance, as the sophomore right-hander limiting the Johnnies to just three hits in eight innings. The sophomore right-hander set down nine consecutive batters at one point and finished with seven strikeouts — one shy of his career high.
LaNasa and Miley each finished with two hits for the Cardinals, while Gannon, Buerkle and Thelemann accounted for the other three.
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