WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and Carleton baseball team squared off in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field, they boasted two of the top hitters in the conference in the Cardinals' Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) and the Knights' Hayden Tsutsui.
 
The duo lived up to their billing—Doll went 2-for-3, while Tsutsui was 1-for-3 with a stolen base—but they played second fiddle to the pitching performances of Saint Mary's starter Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) and Carleton's Jack Violetta.
 
And while Violetta was good—Scatassa was even better.
 
Scatassa tossed a complete-game, five-hit shutout—striking out a season-high eight batters—in leading the Cardinals to a 2-0 victory.
 
Offense took center stage in the nightcap, however, as the two teams combined for 22 runs and 29 hits—not to mention a five-run inning and a six-run inning—in the nine-inning affair.
 
Fortunately for coach Nick Winecke, the Cardinals' offense—led by Doll, Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.)—was a shade better, as Saint Mary's outslugged the Knights 13-9 to complete the sweep.
 
After failing to register a hit through the first two innings—and first eight batters of the lineup—in Game 1, the Cardinals got to Carleton starter Jack Violetta in the third, getting back-to-back singles from Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) and Doll. The Knight left-hander, however, worked out of the jam, picking Seegers off second and, after a two-out walk to Buerkle got Tyler Lursen (Maple Grove, Minn.) to strike out swinging.
 
The Cardinals would not be denied in the fourth—Kinne made sure of that. The junior launched his fourth home run of the season—a bomb to right—that broke the scoreless deadlock, and gave Saint Mary's a 1-0 lead.
 
Saint Mary's took advantage of a Carleton throwing error to push its lead to 2-0 in the fifth. With Doll on second and Lursen on first—thanks to a single and a walk, respectively—Carleton catcher Hayden Tsutsui tried to pick Lursen off, but his throw sailed into right field, allowing Doll to score all the way from second.
 
And with Scatassa on the mound, two runs was more than enough, as the senior right-handed recorded his fifth collegiate complete game—and second career shutout—in sealing his team-leading fifth win of the year.
 
Doll—the reigning MIAC Athlete of the Week—continued his dominance of conference pitching, going 2-for-3, while Kinne, Seegers, and Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.) accounted for Saint Mary's other three hits.
 
Saint Mary's threatened to break things open right from the get-go in Game 2, but could only manage a single run in their first at-bat. The Cardinals loaded the bases on back-to-back singles by Doll and Cale Pieczynski (Plover, Wis.) and a walk to Buerkle. Drohner forced Buerkle out at second on a grounder to short, but Doll scored on the play to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 lead.
 
Doll continued to make his presence felt in the third, lacing his fourth hit of the afternoon with one out. The speedy senior moved from first to third on a slow-rolling ground-out to short by Pieczynski and scored on a balk by Carleton pitcher Gar Crowell.
 
Saint Mary's plated its third run of the game in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Jake Mencacci (Wheaton, Ill.), but the Knights answered in the fifth, breaking their 11-inning scoreless drought with a solo run to cut the Cardinal lead to 3-1.
 
Kinne pushed the lead back to four, 4-1, with his second home run of the day in the sixth—a lead-off shot to the exact same spot in right field.
 
Mencacci and A.J. Redders (Middleton, Wis.) followed Kinne's bomb with back-to-back infield singles and Jacob Frost (Moline, Ill.) walked to load the bases. Seegers followed with a single to left, scoring both Mencacci and Redders, and, one out later—and the bases again loaded—Buerkle delivered a two-run double to right for an 8-1 Saint Mary's advantage.
 
Carleton made things interesting, scoring its second run of the game on a double by Adam Shaukat and a pair of Knight groundouts in the seventh, before capitalizing on two Saint Mary's errors to score six runs in the eighth to knot the game at 8-8.
 
And set up the Cardinals' eighth-inning heroics.
 
Doll led off Saint Mary's eighth with single—making him 5-for-7 on the afternoon—moved to second on a bunt single by Pieczynski, and singled on a Buerkle single to left to give the Cardinals the lead for good, 9-8.
 
But the Cardinals weren't done, as Kinne laced a two-run single to left, Redders added an RBI groundout, and Frost chipped in a run-scoring single to left to seal the win.
 
Doll paced the Cardinals' 16-hit Game 2 attack, going 3-for-4 with four runs scored, while Pieczynski, Buerkle, Kinne, Frost, and Seegers all chipped in two hits. Kinne and Buerkle also drove in a pair of runs each.
 
Jacob Dawson (Oakdale, Minn.) went the first 5 2/3 innings, limiting the Knights to one run on seven hits, before giving way to Ryan Fejt (Westchester, Ill.). Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.), the third Cardinal pitcher, was credited with the win—hits fifth against no losses—allowing one run on two hits in 1 1/3 innings of work.
 
The Cardinals (8-6 MIAC, 22-12-1 overall) step out of conference play on Wednesday—weather permitting—as they head across town for a nine-inning nonconference game against NCAA Division II Winona State.