HOMESTEAD, Fla. — After a pair of nailbiters — a 3-1 win over Ramapo (N.J.) and a 5-4 loss to Bowdoin — in the first two games of their spring trip to Florida, Saint Mary's University baseball coach Nick Whaley was hoping his Cardinals would be involved in a couple of games that wouldn't be decided in the team's final at-bat when they returned to the field Sunday.

Yeah, right.

Mount St. Clare scored pair of runs in the ninth inning en route to a 3-2 victory over SMU in the first game Sunday, then the University of Sioux Falls used a pair of three-run innings, then held off a late SMU rally to hand the Cardinals their third striaght one-run loss, 6-5.

"We're playing good baseball, we're just not getting the timely hit, or the lucky bounce when we need it," said Whaley, whose team fell to 1-5 with the losses. "Our pitching has been exceptional, and we're doing a good job of putting the ball in play, we just aren't able to string a bunch of hits together."

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead against the Cougars in Game 2. Rob Kimlinger (Lake Elmo, Minn.) drew a two-out walk, moved to second on David McMahon's (Coon Rapids, Minn.) bunt single and advanced to third on a walk to Dusty Wilhelmy (Mendota Heights, Minn.). Ryan Majerus (St. Charles, Minn.) then laced a grounder to short that Sioux Falls' Matt Stange couldn't get a handle on, allowing both Kimlinger and McMahon to score.

Sioux Falls answered with three runs in the bottom of the first off SMU starter Ian Bents (Fairmont, Minn.). Back-to-back-to-back singles loaded the bases to start the game, and an error by Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.) allowed two Cougar runners to score, and an error by Eric Froistad (North St. Paul, Minn.) on an attempted double play accounted for the third Sioux Falls run.

SMU tied the game at 3-3 on an RBI single by Majerus, but Sioux Falls countered with a single run in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth to take a commanding 6-3 advantage.

The Cardinals got one run back in the sixth on a Froistad RBI single and made it a one-run game on McMahon's RBI single with one out in the top of the seventh. But that was as close as SMU would come as Sioux Falls reliever Scott DenBoer got Majerus to strike out to end the threat.

"We just gave away too many runs (against Sioux Falls)," said Whaley, whose team committed three errors against the Cougars two of which directly resulted in Sioux Falls runs. "We gave Sioux Falls some free outs, and they capitalized on them."

In Game 1, the Cardinals again struck first, getting an RBI double from Matt Rink with two outs in the second. SMU made it 2-0 in the fifth, as Wilhelmy scored from third on an error by Mounties third baseman Jason Welke — one of six Mount St. Clare errors on the day.

Mount St. Clare finally got on the board with a single run in the sixth, then completed their rally with two runs in the ninth.

"That was a tough loss — just because we got great pitching from Andy Ebert (Winona / 6 innings, 1 run, 6 hits, 7 Ks), but couldn't give him an offensive support," Whaley said. "It was just one of those days. You always want to be in position to win the game in the late innings — and we did that today, we just couldn't get the job done."