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2005 Record: 8-12 MIAC, 16-14 Overall
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| Last Week's Results: Saint Mary's 18, Viterbo 3 / Details Concordia 9, Saint Mary's 3 / Details Concordia 6, Saint Mary's 4 / Details Saint Mary's 4, St. Olaf 3 / Details St. Olaf 11, Saint Mary's 0 / Details |
| Upcoming Games: Tues., May 10: Saint Mary's at Winona St., 6 p.m. |
| This and That: The Cardinals scored a season-high 18 runs and collected a season-best 20 hits — including nine for extra bases — in their 18-3 rout of Viterbo Tuesday. … SMU's 18 runs were the most scored since the Cardinals routed Hillside Baptist 21-1 on March 9, 2000. … The Cardinals, who scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat St. Olaf 4-3 on Sunday, have now outscored their opponents 23-16 in the seventh inning. … SMU's 4-3 Game 1 win vs. the Oles was their sixth one-run win of the season. … The Cardinals are 9-4 in games decided by two runs or less. … Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn,.) accounted for both SMU hits – both doubles — in the Cardinals' Game 2 loss to the Oles. … SMU has scored 10 or more runs in five of their last six wins. … Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) currently leads the Cardinals in virtually every offensive category, including average (.367), hits (36), triples (4), RBIs (28) and slugging percentage (.592). … Joe Popek (Eagan, Minn.) tossed his first collegiate complete game in last Tuesday's win vs. Viterbo, allowing two earned runs and striking out seven in nine innings. … Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) recorded the Cardinals’ first five-hit game of the season vs. the V-Hawks, going 5-for-7 — with two home runs and a double. … Rink and Knudsen lead the team with 11 multiple-hit games, while the two also boast eight multiple-RBI games. |
but ink runs dry as SMU settles for split in MIAC finale
WINONA, Minn. — Like his fellow senior teammates, Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) has enjoyed a storybook baseball career at Saint Mary's University.
And last Sunday afternoon, in his final Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, and his final appearance in front of the home crowd at Max Molock Field, Rink and Co. wrote the picture-perfect final chapter, as SMU rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning — including a walk-off RBI single by Rink — to beat St. Olaf 4-3.
There were no happy endings in the nightcap, however, as St. Olaf scored early — and often — in blanking the Cardinals 11-0 to earn the split.
"That first game was great — it was an exciting baseball game all the way around," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. whose team snapped a two-game losing streak with their sixth one-run victory of the season. "Our seniors have been the leaders of this team all season, so it really was only fitting that they took charge and got the job done in the seventh."
Trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, senior Jose Rueda (Winona, Minn.) and pinch-hitter Brandon Verbout (Rochester, Minn.) both reached on errors and Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) laid down a perfect drag bunt down the third-base line to load the bases. After Winecke was struck out looking, senior Ryan Majerus (St. Charles, Minn.) lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Rueda, and Rink followed with his game-winning RBI single down the left-field line.
"It was great to see the seniors all contribute like they did," said Whaley, who got five solid innings from senior starter Jesse Pedersen (St. Charles, Minn., not to mention a clutch, two-out single from Pat Jacobsen (Stillwater, Minn.) that scored SMU's first run in the fifth inning. "Jesse pitched great (9 hits, two earned runs, 2 Ks), Jake had a big hit, Jose got us started (in the seventh) and Ryan and Matt came through in the end.
"It was a perfect ending."
To Game 1, that is.
"We were not able to transition from Game 1 to Game 2," continued Whaley, whose team fell behind 2-0 after the first inning of Game 2, then gave up two more runs in the second and fourth, before St. Olaf broke the game open with a four-run fifth. "We were not mentally — or physically — ready for that second game, and it showed."
St. Olaf starter Eric Tobias limited the Cardinals to just two hits, both by Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) — one-out doubles in both the first and sixth innings — while walking three and striking out five.
"That doubleheader pretty much summed up our whole season thus far," said Whaley, whose team — which moved to 8-12 in the MIAC and 16-14 overall — closes out its season on Tuesday, traveling to Winona State for a 6 p.m., nine-inning nonconference game. "We come out and scratch and claw and find a way to win, and then struggle in the second game.
"We've done a lot of very good things this year — and we're looking forward to (Tuesday's game vs. Winona State). Hopefully we can go in there and really tear it up."