Baseball 5/01/02 -- St. Mary's 10-3, Augsburg 9-2

GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE

STORY FROM ST. MARY'S UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

WINONA, Minn. (5/01/02) -- The Saint Mary's University baseball team did its part — the hard way — and now the waiting begins.

The Cardinals completed a regular season-ending six-game winning streak with a sweep of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Augsburg College Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals rallied for an eight-inning 10-9 win in Game 1, then scored the game-winning run on a bases-loaded balk with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning of the nightcap for a 3-2 win.

Now, the Cardinals must take a wait-and-see approach to the MIAC playoffs as the rest of the conference closes out its regular-season games on Saturday. Augsburg (9-27 overall, 3-15 MIAC) will close its MIAC campaign with a home doubleheader against Gustavus on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

With the two victories — the third straight MIAC doubleheader sweep in the last week for SMU — the Cardinals improved to 13-7 in the conference and are one of six teams vying for the four playoff spots. St. Thomas and St. Olaf appear to be a lock for the top two spots, but SMU, Gustavus (13-5), Concordia (10-6) and St. John's (8-6) are all battling for the other two spots.

The Cardinals may have reached their 13-7 destination with the sweep, but the final leg of their journey to 13-7 was anything but smooth.

In fact, rocky would be an understatement.

On four separate occasions against the Auggies the Cardinals had to battle from at least a one-run deficit – including trailing 8-7 in the bottom of the seventh and 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth of Game 1, and 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth of Game 2 — in order to secure the wins.

SMU jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first three innings in the opener, only to have Augsburg chip away with single runs in the fourth and fifth and four runs in the top of the sixth to take a 6-4 lead.

Augsburg scored on an error in the fourth, Ryan Krautkremer (Sr. Waseca, Minn.) brought a run across on a single in the fifth. Dave Sherry (Sr., Hastings, Minn.) hit the first of his two home runs in the game, a three-run shot, in the sixth, and Pat Marsh (Sr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) singled home a run later in the frame.

Down, but far from out, the Cardinals rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth — getting RBI singles from Rob Kimlinger (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Dusty Wilhelmy (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and an RBI double by Ryan Majerus (St. Charles, Minn.) — only to have Augsburg regain the lead, 8-7, with two runs in the top of the seventh. Sherry hit his second home run, a solo shot, with two outs, and M.J. Iverson (Sr., New Germany, Minn./Norwood-Young America Central HS) singled home another run.

SMU scored the game-tying run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh, then, after Augsburg scored once in the top of the eighth on an RBI double by Taylor Pagel (Fr., Cannon Falls, Minn.), the Cardinals put the game away on a Majerus RBI double and an RBI single by Eric Froistad (North St. Paul, Minn.) in the bottom half of the eighth.

Majerus finished Game 1 with four hits — including three doubles — in four at-bats, while Wilhelmy was 3-for-5 and Froistad was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Sherry went 4-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBI to lead Augsburg, while Marsh went 3-for-5 and Iverson went 2-for-4.

The see-sawing continued in Game 2, as SMU took a 1-0 lead in the first, only to have Augsburg score single runs in the fourth and sixth to take a 2-1 lead. Sherry doubled to drove in a run in the fourth, and Krautkremer scored ona fielding error in the sixth.

SMU tied it in the bottom of the sixth and then won it in the bottom of the seventh with Augsburg pitcher Travis Akre (Jr., Winona, Minn.) was called for a balk with the bases loaded and two out.

Kimlinger went 2-for-3 to lead SMU. Augsburg had five different players get one hit each.