ST. PAUL, Minn. — The last time the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team squared off against Hamline, the Cardinals erupted for 27 runs—including 20 in a 20-2 Game 1 victory—in splitting the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader.
Tuesday afternoon, the same two teams took to the field once again, and this time, the Cardinals were held to just a combined 11 runs—but it was enough to earn Saint Mary's its second straight split against the Pipers.
Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) went 3-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs, and
Ryan Fejt (Westchester, Ill.) and
Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) put together four innings of stellar relief, as the Cardinals held off the Pipers 5-4 in the opener at CHS Field.
Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) recorded a career-high five-hit afternoon and Kinne drove in three more runs in the nightcap. Unfortunately, it was not enough, as Hamline scored an unearned run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the Pipers to a 7-6 win the nightcap.
The Pipers scored single runs in first and third to take a 2-0 lead in Game 1, and both teams plated sole runs in the fourth—the Cardinals' coming on an RBI single by Kinne—to make it a 3-1 HU lead heading to the sixth.
Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) was hit by a pitch to open the Cardinal sixth, and back-to-back singles by
Ben Buerkle (St. Paul, Minn.) and
Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) scored Pieczynski to cut the Piper lead to 3-2.
But the Cardinals were just getting warmed up.
Kinne followed Lursen's RBI single with a double to right to score Buerkle, and a double to right-center by
A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.) scored both Lursen and Kinne to give the Cardinals a 5-3 advantage.
Hamline got one run back in the bottom half of the sixth—and threatened again in the seventh, putting runners on first and third with two outs—but Mathwig worked out the jam to secure his team-leading fifth save of the season.
Kinne led the Cardinals' seven-hit offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while Buerkle, Lursen, Redders, and
Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.) accounted for Saint Mary's other five hits. Fejt picked up the pitching win, limiting the Pipers to just one hit in two innings in relief of starter
Ben Johnson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.), who went the first three innings, surrendering three runs on eight hits.
The Cardinals did not wait nearly as long to get their offense clicking, scoring three times in their first at-bat—highlighted by
Willie Doll's (Amherst, Wis.) lead-off home run and an RBI single by Kinne.
The three-run cushion did not last long, however, as Collin Olstad launched a one-out, two-run home run in the bottom half of the first to cut the Saint Mary's lead to 3-2.
Kinne pushed the Saint Mary's lead back to three, 5-2, with a two-run single in the third, but Hamline whittled away at the Cardinal lead, plating a solo run in the third and two more in the sixth to pull even, 5-5.
Saint Mary's certainly had its chances to put the game away, loading the bases in both the fifth and sixth innings—but the Cardinals came up empty each time.
Hamline took its first lead of the game on a sacrifice fly by Domenic Dandrea in the bottom of the seventh, but this time, it was the Cardinals who answered, knotting the game at 6-6 with a solo run in the top of the eighth.
The Pipers iced the extra-inning victory, as Joe Setrum opened with a single, moved to third on an Cardinal fielding error, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Leo Zerr.
Pieczynski finished 5-for-6—the first five-hit game of his collegiate career—and Kinne went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the nightcap. Doll chipped in two hits, including his first HR of the season, while Lursen and
Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) collected the Cardinals' other two hits.
Saint Mary's (3-5 MIAC, 15-11 overall) step out of conference play on Friday, hosting UW-Oshkosh in a 4 p.m. nine-inning nonconference game at Max Molock Field. Saint Mary's then hits the road on Saturday, heading to Northfield, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference twinbill against St. Olaf.
