WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University baseball team erupted for six runs in the top of the sixth inning of its season-ending nonconference game at Winona State, the thought of his Division III Cardinals knocking off the Division II Warriors didn't even cross the mind of SMU coach Nick Whaley.

In fact, it was that six-run inning that had Whaley so concerned.

"I thought we might have woke a monster with those six runs," Whaley said.

Yet, inning by inning, the monster remained in a slumber — and inning by inning, the Cardinals inched closer to an upset victory over their cross-town rivals.

Then came the seventh — the inning that proved to be a wake-up call for the slumbering monster.

The Warriors erupted for seven runs on three hits – and took advantage of two SMU errors — to erase a 9-5 Cardinal lead and carry WSU to a 12-10 victory.

"It was a great game all the way around – it had a little bit of everything," said Whaley of the three-and-a-half hour marathon, which included 22 runs, 23 hits, five errors, and 22 walks. "You've got to give Winona State credit, they swung the bats, no matter what we threw at them, and we threw everything at them — knuckleballs, off-speed, change-ups, fastballs … .

"We gave them two extra outs (in the seventh inning) and they made us pay for it — that was the difference."

After spotting the Warriors a 2-0 first-inning lead, SMU erupted for six runs in the top of the second — getting RBI singles from Jose Rueda (Winona, Minn.), Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.), Pat Jacobsen (Stillwater, Minn.), and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.).

The Warriors whittled away at the SMU lead, plating single runs in the third, fourth and fifth to cut the gap to 6-5. The Cardinals scored once on a Winona State error in the sixth, then added two more in the top of the seventh — one on a two-out RBI double by Jacobsen and the other on a two-out, run-scoring single by Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) — to push their lead back to four, 9-5.

And then the alarm clock went off — and the Cardinals' lead quickly disappeared.

Winona State sent 10 batters to the plate in the seventh, scoring seven times on just three hits — including a two-out, three-run home run off the bat of Brian Menard — to take the lead for good.

"It's pretty hard to be too disappointed," said Whaley. "All season long, this team has come to the field ready to play. Through the good and the bad, one thing was always constant — this team played hard, and played hard from start to finish.

"We've had a great year, and everyone on this team can hold their head high," continued Whaley, whose team closed out its season wtih a 16-15 overall record. "You can't just judge this team by the wins and losses. Anytime you are able to come together as a group, believe in each other and compete the way we did, it's pretty special.

"And this year was just that — special."