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| 2006 Records: 0-0 MIAC, 2-9 Overall |
| Last Week's Results: Wartburg 5, Saint Mary's 4 (9) / Details Saint Mary's 5, Wartburg 2 / Details Cornell 6, Saint Mary's 5 / Details Cornell 4, Saint Mary's 1 / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Thur., March 30: SMU at Winona St., 3:30 p.m. Sat., April 1: Carleton at SMU, 1 p.m. |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals snapped their three-game losing streak with their Game 2 win over No. 3 Wartburg. … Four of the Cardinals' nine losses have come by two runs or less. … SMU has scored at least six runs in six of their 11 games. … Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) hit a team-leading .333 (5-for-15) with two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored in SMU's four games last week. … Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) drove in a team-best three runs, while Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn.) collected his first collegiate triple. … Cosgrove and Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn.) both had their season-best four-game hitting streaks snapped in the first game of Sunday's DH vs. Cornell. … Mike Mitchell (Mound, Minn.) tossed SMU's first complete-game of the season, throwing a five-hitter with three strikeouts in the Cardinals' 5-2 win over Wartburg. … SMU has outscored its opponents 9-1 in the seventh inning. … The Cardinals are 1-4 when scoring first, and 1-5 when their opponent scores first. |
SMU runs out of late-inning heroics against Cornell
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Dan
Cosgrove .333, 2 2B, 2 RBIs last weekened |
SMU's better-late-than-never approach resulted in a nonconference split, as the Knights scored single runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings to beat the Cardinals 5-4 in Game 1, while SMU's four-run, seventh-inning outburst was more than enough in a 5-2 Game 2 win.
And there was more late-inning heroics for the Cardinals on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals were on the receiving end this time around, as Cornell scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat SMU 6-5 in the opening game of their nonconference doubleheader. The Rams left little doubt in the nightcap, scoring twice in the first inning and never looking back en route to a 4-1 win.
"This (doubleheader) was pretty similar to the games against Wartburg," said SMU coach Nick Whaley. "The first game in both doubleheaders could have easily gone either way. We just kept battling, but, unlike Saturday, we just weren't able to get over that hump (vs. Cornell)."
The Cardinals sandwiched a pair of two-run innings around a three-run second for the Rams to take a 4-3 advantage after three innings. Cornell regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but SMU got the equalizer in the top of the sixth on an RBI groundout by Brandon Verbout (Rochester, Minn.).
In the Cornell seventh, however, the Rams led off with back-to-back singles, and a throwing error by SMU pitcher Dan Cosgrove (South St., Paul, Minn.) allowed the Rams' Ben Rudman to score from second with the winning run.
"We had a our chances, we just didn't execute a couple of times and that hurt us," said Whaley, whose team threatened in the top of the fourth of Game 2, putting runners on second and third with one out, but failed to score, then settled for just one run in the fifth — on an RBI single by Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.). "Our bats kind of deserted us a bit (in the second game). We just did not string any hits together, and when we did, we didn't get that clutch hit when we needed it."
Yet, despite the two losses — and three in four games over the weekend — Whaley was pleased with his team's performance.
"This was a good weekend for us," said Whaley, whose team returns to action Thursday, traveling to cross-town rival Winona State for a nine-inning, nonconference game. "Both teams we played were aggressive and forced us to make plays. We weren't always able to respond the way I would have liked, but overall I thought we competed hard and we battled.
"Right now there's a play here or there that's hurting us — hopefully we can get that straightened out soon."