WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — It was not quite the way Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball coach Nick Winecke was hoping his Cardinals would kick off the 2016 season.
 
Augustana broke open a 1-1 game with five unanswered runs—including three in the fourth inning—in handing the Cardinals a 7-1 nonconference setback Sunday afternoon.
 
"I didn't think we played that poorly," said Winecke. "We made three or four mistakes, and (Augustana) capitalized on all of them—that really was the difference the in game.
 
"I thought our pitchers did a nice job, but offensively, we were not that good."
 
After spotting the Vikings a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, Saint Mary's knotted things up in its half of the third, getting a lead-off triple from Willie Doll (Amherst, Ill.) and an RBI single from Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.).
 
That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offensive production—and Augustana was just getting warmed up.
 
The Vikings scored three runs in the fourth, and added single runs in the fifth, seventh and ninth innings to seal the win.
 
Doll finished with two of the Cardinals' five hits, going 2-for-2, while Mencacci, Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), and Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) accounted for the other three.
 
Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) took the loss on the mound, allowing five runs—four earned—on seven hits in six innings of work.
 
The Cardinals (0-1 overall) get another shot at the Vikings on Monday, as the two teams square off again on Monday at 10:30 a.m. in Winter Haven, Fla.