WINONA, Minn. — When Ezekiel Chamblee (Zumbrota, Minn.) got Concordia's Jake Stilwell to strike out with the tying run on second and two outs in the top of the seventh, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota starting pitcher Ryan Wolfe (Wabasha, Minn.) must a breathed a huge sigh of relief.
 
In a season in which Wolfe has been one of the Cardinals' top starters, there seemed to be one thing missing from his freshman resume—his first collegiate win.
 
With Chamblee's game-ending strikeout of Stilwell, however, that all changed.
 
Wolfe tossed the first 6 1/3 innings, allowing five runs—only three earned—on nine hits in securing collegiate win No. 1, and leading the Cardinals to a 6-5 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Concordia in Game 1 of the teams' doubleheader at Max Molock Field.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Game 2 did not follow the same script, as the Cobbers scored 14 runs on 13 hits off six different Saint Mary's pitchers, as Concordia earned the conference split with a 14-2, seven-inning win.
 
The Cobbers were first-pitch swinging against Wolfe in the second inning of the opener, loading the bases on a fielding error and back-to-back singles. Concordia sandwiched RBI singles by Chad Johnson and Sames around a run-scoring groundout to push its lead to 3-0.
 
With two swings of the bat, however, the Cobbers' three-run deficit was trimmed to one, as Zach Slowiak (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) led off the Saint Mary's second with a double and Jake Barry (Tinley Park, Ill.) followed with a towering home run to left, his team-leading 11^th—and second in as many days to make it 3-2.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
 
Matthew Piechowski (Hutchinson, Minn.) singled and was sacrificed to second. Joe Costello (Victoria, Minn.) followed with an infield single and the two advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. The Cobbers intentionally walked Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) to load the bases. Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Piechowski, and a Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) single plated Saint Mary's fourth run of the inning for a 4-3 Saint Mary's lead.
 
Saint Mary's pushed its lead to 6-3 in the fourth, as Seegers led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a Kinne RBI single. Slowiak was hit by a pitch with one out, and Barry delivered his second extra-base hit of the afternoon—a run-scoring double—to plate the Cardinals' second run of the inning.
 
Concordia scored a run in the sixth to make it 6-4 and added another in the seventh, but Chamblee got Stilwell to strikeout with runners on first and second to seal his second save in as many days—and Wolfe's first collegiate victory.
 
Kinne and Barry each had two hits to fuel Saint Mary's 10-hit Game 1 offensive attack, while Barry finished with three RBIs and Kinne added two.
 
Concordia broke a scoreless start to the second game, as Chad Johnson led off the third inning by launching a 3-2 offering by Saint Mary's starter Jesse Barron (Minnetonka, Minn.) over the left-field fence for a solo home run—and sparking a four-hit, five-run Cobber inning.
 
After failing to solve Cobber starter Brett Erickson through the first four innings, the Cardinals' broke up the CC right-hander's no-hitter in a big way in the fifth. Costello, Connor Christenson (Lakeville, Minn.) and Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) put together three consecutive singles to open the inning—Buerkle's driving in Saint Mary's first run of the game. Seegers followed with a walk to load the bases—and chase Erickson, and a one-out sacrifice fly by Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill.) cut the deficit to 5-2.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Cobber lead ballooned to seven in the top of the sixth, as Concordia parlayed five hits—including an RBI double by Johnson and a run-scoring triple from Stilwell—into four runs for a 9-2 cushion.
 
And Concordia continued to feast on Saint Mary's pitching in the seventh, getting a bases-clearing, three-run double by Nate Leintz to highlight its second five-run inning of the game to push the Cobber advantage to 14-2.
 
Christenson, one of eight Cardinals honored during the pre-game Senior Day festivities, finished with two hits in three at-bats to lead the Cardinals' six-hit attack. Buerkle and Kinne—also Cardinal seniors—each had one hit, with Barry and Costello accounting for the other two.
 
The Cardinals (7-9 MIAC, 17-18 overall) close out the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday, entertaining Hamline in a 2:30 p.m. conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field.