WINONA, Minn. — For the third time in as many doubleheaders this week, Game 1 for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team went down to the final at-bat Saturday afternoon.
And, fortunately for coach
Nick Winecke, this time around, the end result was a favorable one.
The Cardinals, who suffered a 2-1 walk-off loss in the opener of their twinbill against Augsburg Thursday—not to mention a 7-6 walk-off setback in the nightcap vs. the Auggies—found themselves on the receiving end of a walk-off win against Macalester.
Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) delivered a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh, scoring
Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.), and giving the Cardinals a 4-3, come-from-behind win over the Scots at Max Molock Field.
There would be no fourth straight walk-off, however, as Macalester erupted for seven runs in the fourth inning and the Cardinals never recovered in falling to the Scots 13-2.
Macalester scored solo runs in the first and fifth innings to grab a 2-0 lead in Game 1, and—after Saint Mary's cut the deficit to 2-1 on a Seegers RBI single in the fifth—post their third one-run inning in the top of the sixth to regain a two-run advantage, 3-1.
Saint Mary's knotted the game at 3-3 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth—one on a
Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) RBI double and the other on
Joey Costello's (Victoria, Minn.) run-scoring single—setting up Kinne's seventh-inning heroics.
Costello and Kinne each collected two of Saint Mary's eight hits in the opener, with Seegers, Barry,
Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.), and
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) each chipping in one hit.
Josh Hottinger (Oconomowoc, Wis.) earned his team-leading fifth win of the season with one inning of one-hit relief of
Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.), who went the first six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
Macalester did not waste any time putting Game 2 out of reach, scoring three times in the second, before adding seven more in the fourth—including a three-run home run from Sam Goldberg and a two-run shot by Jared Abelson—to grab a 10-0 advantage.
The Cardinals finally got on the board in the sixth on a two-run home run by Barry—his team-leading ninth of the season—to cut the deficit to 10-2. Macalester, however, answered with three more runs in the top of the seventh to ice the win—and earn the conference split.
Kinne posted his second two-hit game of the afternoon to pace Saint Mary's six-hit attack, with Buerkle, Seegers, Piechowski, and Barry accounting for the other four hits.
The Cardinals (4-8 MIAC, 14-17 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, traveling to Northfield, Minn., for a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader against Carleton.
