PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — For the third time in four games during the Port Charlotte Tournament, the Saint Mary's University baseball team came away with a win Thursday afternoon.

And, as was the case in their first two tournament wins, Thursday's victory over Bowdoin was anything but easy.

SMU jumped out to a 6-1 lead after six innings, then gave up back-to-back two run innings in the seventh and eighth, and watched Bowdoin put the tying run on third base, before David Reiter (Elgin, Minn.) got the final out to give the Cardinals a 6-5 victory.

"That was a great baseball game and a good win for us," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team improved to 5-1 overall with their third one-run victory of the week. "The best part of the win is the way we kept battling — we got out on top early, and when (Bowdoin) stared clawing back, we never lost our composure. We just kept battling and never let the game get away from us."

SMU opened the scoring with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the third, and Bowdoin answered back with one of its own in the bottom half of the inning.

The Cardinals then took the lead for good with three more runs in the fourth — getting RBI singles from Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) and Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) — then added a single run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Rink.

"I was very happy with the way we swung the bats," said Whaley, whose team banged out 11 hits. "This was a big test for us — Bowdoin is a quality team and we played very well."

As impressive as SMU's offensive effort was, the game hinged on the performance of Matt Popek (Eagan, Minn.), who allowed just one earned run in seven innings to get the win. Mike Mitchell (Mounds, Minn.) got roughed up for a pair of runs on two hits in the eighth, but Reiter came on to shut the door in the ninth.

"We got a great start out of Matt Popek," said Whaley. "We were in a situation where we needed a pitcher to good deep into a game, and not only did Matt go deep into the game, but he did so with an impressive outing."