SMU Baseball

**Last Action**
The Cardinals saw their losing streak climb to six straight Friday, as SMU failed to hold seventh-inning leads in both games vs. Augsburg, falling 4-3 in eight innings in the opener, and 3-2 in the nightcap. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, got stellar pitching performances from Riley Bosch (who threw a one-hit shutout with six strikeouts in the opener) and Erik Olson (who allowed six hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks in game two) as the Tommies swept Bethel, 2-0 and 2-1, Friday.

**Last Meeting**
Dan Cosgrove was a perfect 5-for-5 with three RBIs, but the Cardinals were no match for the Tommies, as UST cruised to a 7-1, 5-4 sweep of the Cardinals in their MIAC meeting a year ago. … St. Thomas has won 12 in a row vs. Saint Mary's. The Cardinals' last win came as the home team on the Tommie campus in 2001. The Tommies were one strike away from victory in game one, but Scott Morrison's two-run homer — his second of the game — with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted Saint Mary's to a 6-5 walk-off victory. Two Tommie errors in the inning helped erase a 5-3 UST lead. The Tommies went on to win the NCAA championship 26 days later.

Cardinal Notes

Zach Olberding
2-run single
in Game 2 loss
to Augsburg

The Cardinals' losses to Augsburg Friday extended their losing streak to six straight. … With Friday's back-to-back losses to St. Olaf, the Cardinals have also now lost 10 of their last 11 games. … St. Olaf's 21 runs and 24 hits in Game 1 last Monday were the most allowed by the Cardinals this season. The Oles' 21 runs were also the most allowed since Winona State plated 23 vs. SMU in a 23-3 victory on March 31, 2004. … SMU has now been held to four runs or less in 11 of their 13 losses, including four games in which the Cardinals have scored just one run. … With a walk in Game 1 and a single in Game 2, Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) has now reached base safely in 16 of SMU's 17 games. … Winecke boasts a team-leading .346 batting average, while also leading the team in runs (7), hits (17), total bases (25), slugging percentage (.510), walks (8), on-base percentage (.441) and multiple-hit games (5). … Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.), who has hit six of SMU's 18 doubles this season, leads the team in RBIs (8) and shares the team lead in hits (17). … SMU boasts six players — Knudsen (17), Winecke (17), Robbie Johnson (Lake Elmo, Minn. / 11) and Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn. / 10), Brandon Haugh (Easton, Minn. / 11) and Kyle Ryan (St. Paul, Minn. / 11) — with 10 or more hits. … The Cardinals gave up six second-inning runs vs. St. Olaf and have now been outscored 20-1 in the second inning. … Three of Augsburg's seven runs came in the seventh inning. … SMU is winless when a run is scored in the first inning (0-9). … The Cardinals turned two double plays vs. Augsburg and five more vs. St. Olaf, giving them 13 for the season — six shy of the 19 they turned all of last season.

**Tommie Notes**
St. Thomas fell four spots to No. 24 in the latest American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA) Division III poll, released Tuesday. The Toms improved to 14-6 overall with Monday's sweep of Concordia-Moorhead. Two teams UST beat last month are ranked -- Salisbury (Md.) is ninth and Otterbein (Ohio) is 15th. … St. Thomas is 139-15 vs. conference foes in baseball and softball over the last three seasons (80-3 softball, 59-12 baseball), including a 15-1 postseason run. … Due to a quirk in the schedule, UST has played all six MIAC games at home. St. Thomas is 38-6 in its last 44 home games on campus. … The Tommies have trailed in 10 consecutive games, but have posted seven comeback wins in that span. They've won two games in extra innings when they were down to their last out in the bottom of the seventh. The Toms have won six consecutive MIAC extra-inning games over three seasons. … The Tommies finished 9-2 on their March 17-24 spring trip to Fort Myers. … The Tommies batted .374 in 11 games. UST is 109-27 in Florida games in coach Dennis Denning's 13 seasons. The 8-7 victory over then No. 1-ranked Otterbein was win No. 800 for Denning in his 30-year career at Cretin-Derham Hall and UST. Denning is now 805-205. … Louie Salmen has had just one error in 135 defensive chances at second base in 41 career games. …UST's pitchers have a 2.82 ERA in 19 games vs. Division III teams (they allowed seven in eight innings of 9-2 loss to Minnesota Gophers). In four MIAC games, Tommie pitchers have a 3-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio in (26 Ks, nine walks) and have allowed just 11 runs in 33 innings. … Catcher Matt Pexa has thrown out three of four runners trying to steal.