CAROL STREAM, Ill. — Thanks to R.J. Brown (Broadview, Ill.), the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team owned an 11-0 advantage in hits—and a 10-0 edge in runs scored—en route to a 10-0 win over Aurora in their first game of the Wheaton Round Robin Tournament Friday afternoon.
 
In their second game of the day, however, the Cardinals surrendered 10 hits—not to mention five runs—as host Wheaton handed Saint Mary's a 5-3 nonconference setback at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
The Cardinals continued to swing the hot bat early against the Thunder, getting a two-run double by Zach Slowiak (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) in the top of the second inning. After Wheaton cut the gap to 2-1 with a run in the bottom of the second, Saint Mary's Jake Berry (Tinley Park, Ill.)—who laced a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh against Aurora earlier in the day—delivered a run-scoring single to push the Cardinals' lead back to two, 3-1.
 
From there, however, it was all Wheaton, as the Thunder took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four times to take a 5-3 lead advantage—and the Cardinals could not recover.
 
Slowiak finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs to pace the Cardinals, while Barry was 2-for-4, and Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.), Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.), Dirk Drohner (Plover, Wis.), and Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.) accounted for Saint Mary's other five hits.
 
Eli Morrison (Minneapolis, Minn.) suffered the pitching loss, allowing four runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, while Nathan Mathwig (Woodbury, Minn.) allowed one run on three hits over the final 1 2/3 innings.
 
The Cardinals (8-4 overall) are back in action on Saturday morning, squaring off against Calvin in an 11 a.m. matchup at Lee Pfund Stadium.