WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota baseball team nearly nine innings to get its offense cranked up, but once they did, the Cardinals went from "slow" to "extra-fast" in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Gustavus at Max Molock Field.
 
The Cardinals, who managed just one run in dropping the opening game to the Gusties 5-1—and plated just one run through the first two innings of the nightcap—erupted for nine runs over the next six innings en route to an 11-7 victory and a key conference split.
 
The Gusties struck early in the opener, scoring twice off Cardinal starter R.J. Brown (Broadview, Ill.) in their first at-bat. Gustavus would push that lead to 4-0 with its second two-run inning of the game in the fourth, before Saint Mary's finally broke through in its half of the fourth when Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) scored on a wild pitch.
 
That, however, would be the only time a Cardinal would cross home plate in Game 1, as Gustavus tacked on a single run in the top of the seventh—and survived a bases-loaded one-out jam in Saint Mary's half of the frame to secure the win.
 
Zach Slowiak accounted for two of the Cardinals' three hits in the opener, with Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.) recording the other.
 
The Cardinals got off to a much better start in Game 2, getting an RBI double from Kinne in the first inning to take an early 1-0 advantage.
 
Gustavus would knot things up with a solo run in the top of the third, but the Cardinals answered—in a big way—in their half of the inning, as Kinne delivered a two-run double, and Ben Buerkle (Roseville, Minn.) and Slowiak also drove in runs to push Saint Mary's lead to 5-1.
 
The Gusties scored once and the Cardinals twice in the fifth—Saint Mary's two runs coming on a Seegers RBI groundout and a Will Matthews (Geneva, Ill.) run-scoring single—to push their lead to 7-2.
 
The Saint Mary's lead ballooned to 10-2 thanks to a Chris Bartosz (Woodridge, Ill.) sacrifice fly and a two-run single by Joey Costello (Victoria, Minn.), but the Gusties would not go down without a fight, scoring three times in the sixth and once in the seventh to cut the deficit to three, 10-7.
 
Seegers added his second RBI of the game in the Cardinals' one-run eighth, and Gustavus could only manage one run in its final at-bat in the ninth to earn Saint Mary's the win—and the conference split.
 
After managing just three hits in Game 1, Saint Mary's banged out 14 hits in the nightcap, led by Kinne, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored. Seegers, Matthews, Slowiak, and Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) all chipped in two hits.
 
The Cardinals 1-1 MIAC, 11-10 overall) hit the road on Saturday, traveling to Collegeville, Minn., for a 1 p.m. MIAC doubleheader against Saint John's.
 
 
 
 
Cardinals loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back walks to Chris Bartosz (Woodbridge, Ill.) and Justin Weinberg (Eagan, Minn.) and a one-out single by Joe Seegers (Oconomowoc, Wis.), but a pair of groundouts ended the threat—and the game.