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Tuesday, April 27, 2004 |
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(Through Monday, April 26, 2004) |
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The Cardinals dropped a pair against St. Thomas Saturday, falling 9-8 in 9 innings and 13-4 — giving up all 13 runs in one inning. … After snapping a 9-game losing streak with a 9-6 win vs. Bethel last Saturday, SJU won its second in a row Monday, beating St. Cloud State 5-4. |
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SMU got an RBI triple from Matt Domarus in the top of the sixth inning to break a 3-3 tie and lift the Cardinals to a 4-3 win in the opener, but St. John's pitcher Matt Johnson tossed a complete-game one-hitter in leading SJU to a 2-0 win in the nightcap. |
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Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.) hit .625 last week, collecitng 10 hits in 16 at-bats, including a pair of doubles, four runs scored and four RBIs. … In SMU's sweep of Bethel last Thursday, Cicalello had just one at-bat in which he did not get a hit, going 6-for-7 and scoring three times. … Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) and Dusty Wilhelmy (Mendota Heights, Minn.) each belted two home runs last week, with Rink also driving in a team-leading seven runs. … Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) collected his first career HR vs. St. Thomas last Saturday. … Jesse Pedersen (St. Charles, Minn.) tossed a complete-game six-hitter in beating Bethel last week, while Pat Gornick (West St. Paul, Minn.) also picked up a complete-game win vs. the Royals, scattering seven hits. … St. Thomas' 13-run fifth inning was the most runs SMU has given up in a single inning this season, and the fifth time the Caridnals have surrendered seven ore more runs in one inning. … For the season, Cicalello leads the team in virtually every offensive category, including average (.475), at-bats (99), runs (29), hits (47), doubles (6), triples (1), total bases (55) and stolen bases (4). … The Cardinals have hit 18 home runs this season, four more than they hit all last season — and SMU still has six games remaining. |
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Year Hometown |
WINONA, Minn. — It was supposed to be Nick Whaley's day.
After all, the Saint Mary's University baseball coach was honored as the first recipient of the St. Thomas Distinguished Baseball Alumni Award last Saturday.
Then the Tommies had to go and rain on Whaley's parade.
UST scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning on a bases-loaded double to post a 9-8 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Game 1 win, then erupted for 13 runs in the fifth inning, erasing a 2-0 Saint Mary's lead, and sending the Cardinals to a 13-4 setbacik.
"The end result was a little disappointing, because we played well enough to win — especially in that first game," said Whaley, whose team had opened the week with a pair of key vicrtories over Bethel. "St. Thomas is a very good ball club, and I thought we hung right with them. We played very, very well in the first game, and we played very well for about four-and-a-half innings of the second game."
The Cardinals got out of the blocks fast in the opener, scoring four times in the top of the first — three on a home run by Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) and the other on a solo homer from Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.).
St. Thomas cut the lead to two, 4-2, with two runs in the bottom of the first, added one in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take its first lead of the game, 6-4.
SMU responded with three runs in the sixth, getting RBI doubles from Seth Pugh (Crystal, Minn.) and Pat Gornick (West St. PaUl, Minn.) to take a 7-6 advantage.
UST knotted things up with a home run in the bottom of the sixth, but the Cardinals bounced back again, taking an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth when Tony Cicalello (St. Paul, Minn.) laced a two-out double and scored on a single by Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) The Tommies foiled SMU's upset bid, however, loading the bases with no outs and getting a two-run double from Brett Olson to seal the win.
St. Thomas left little doubt in the nightcap, erasing a 2-0 SMU lead with 13 runs in the fifth inning — the most runs SMU has allowed in a single inning this season, and the fifth time this season the Cardinals have given up seven or more runs in one inning.
A Cosgrove home run and an RBI single by Pugh gave the Cardinals a short-lived, 2-0 fifth-inning lead, only to have the roof cave in in the bottom of the fifth, as UST sent 17 batters to the plate, collected eight hits and took advantage of three SMU errors en route to its second-biggest scoring inning in school history.
Dusty Wilhelmy (Mendota Heights, Minn.) launched a two-run home run in the top of the sixth, but it was too little, too late for the Cardinals (5-9 MIAC, 8-18 overall).
"I don't know what it is about us and those big innings," said Whlaey of the Tommies' fifth. "It was just one of those things where we didn't make a couple of plays that would have gotten us out of the inning, and the floodgates just opened.
"The key now is have we bounce back — because in reality, you take away that one inning, and we could have easily won both games," continued Whaley. "We swung the bats well, got a number of clutch hits, and that's going to have to conitnue this week."