COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — It took long enough for the Saint Mary's University baseball team to finally get its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season underway.

Nine days and a handful of postponements, to be exact.

And for seven innings, it was worth the wait — well worth it.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then broke a 3-3 tie on Matt Domarus' (Woodbury, Minn.) RBI triple, as SMU got its MIAC season off on the right foot with a 4-3 win over St. John's Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, if Game 1 was getting off on the right foot, Game 2 was getting off on the left one, as St. John's pitcher Matt Johnson tossed a complete-game one-hitter — allowing only a two-out, first-inning single to Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) — as the Johnnies earned a split with a 2-0 win.

The Cardinals banged out nine hits in Game 1, including a 2-for-3, two-run effort from Domarus. Rob Kimlinger (Lake Elmo, Minn.), and Dan Cosgrove (West St. Paul, Minn.) also chipped in a pair of hits for the Cardinals, who snapped a two-game losing streak with the win.

SMU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, getting an RBI double from Seth Pugh (Crystal, Minn.) and an RBI groundout from Ryan Majerus (St. Charles, Minn.). The Cardinals made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth as Domarus led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Tony Cicalello's (St. Paul, Minn.) sacrifice fly.

St. John's finally got to SMU starter Eric Williamson (St. Charles, Minn.) in the fourth, tagging the senior right-hander for one run on four hits. The Johnnies added two more runs in the fifth to tie the game 3-3 — setting up Domarus' sixth-inning heroics.

There were no late-game heroics in Game 2 — or early-game, or mid-game, for that matter.

Johnson faced the minimum 21 batters, allowing just Rink's first-inning single, while striking out seven.

SJU, meanwhile, scored all the runs it would need in the first, tagging SMU starter Cory Kanz (Oronoco, Minn.) for one run in the first and one in the third. Kanz went five innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out one.