WINONA, Minn. — In the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Augsburg, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team held the Auggies to runs in just one inning.
 
In the nightcap, the Auggies plated runs in six of the game's nine innings.
 
And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, neither scenario worked in their favor.
 
Augsburg scored all five of its runs in the top of the sixth inning, erasing a 1-0 Saint Mary's lead in handing the Cardinals a 5-2 setback in Game 1 at Max Molock Field.
 
In Game 2, the Auggies scored in each of the first four innings—and added a single run in the sixth and six more in the ninth—as Augsburg completed the sweep with a 17-5 victory.
 
Saint Mary's got on the board in the second inning of the opener, as Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) plated Kevin Miley (St. Paul, Minn.) with an RBI groundout to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
 
And through the first five innings, one run was more than enough with Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) on the mound, as the junior limited Augsburg to just one hit—a fourth-inning single—through five.
 
In the sixth, however, the Auggies' bats came to life, scoring five runs on five hits—including back-to-back-to-double doubles—to take the lead for good.
 
Saint Mary's scored a single run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by David Barry (Apple Valley, Minn.), but it was too little, too late.
 
Miley finished 2-for-3 with a run scored to pace the Cardinals' seven-hit attack, while Buerkle, Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.), David Barry, Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.), and Pieczynski acconted for Saint Mary's other five hits.
 
The Auggies picked up where they left off  in Game 2, scoring four times in their first at-bat.
 
Saint Mary's would answer with three runs in their half of the first inning—getting a two-run single from Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Miley—but the Cardinals had no answer for the Auggies' two run second, third, and fourth innings, as Augsburg pushed its lead to 10-3.
 
The Cardinals began chipping away at the Augsburg advantage with single runs in the fifth and sixth—Jon Schlemmer (De Pere, Wis.) launched a solo home run in the fifth, while Pieczynski singles to score Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.) in the sixth—only to have the Auggies ice the win with a six-run ninth inning.
 
Doll led the way offensively for the Cardinals in Game 2, going 3-for-5, with Buerkle and Denning each collecting two hits.
 
The Cardinals (7-5 MIAC, 21-8 overall) are back in action on Thursday, when they travel across town to Loughery Field for a 6 p.m. nine-inning nonconference game against NCAA Division II Winona State.