Baseball 4/11/06 -- Augsburg 13-11, St. Mary's 11-1 

GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE


WINONA, Minn. (4/11/06) -- After scoring just one run in each of their last three games, the Saint Mary's University baseball team finally broke out of its offensive funk Tuesday afternoon against visiting Augsburg College.

Unfortunately, so did the Auggies.

The Cardinals erupted for a season-high 11 runs in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Max Molock Field -- and came up two runs short, as Augsburg equalled its season high, plating 13 runs in a 13-11 victory.

SMU's brief offense outburst was just that -- brief -- as Augsburg pitcher Andrew Werner (So., Vermillion, Minn./Hastings HS) limited the Cardinals to four Game 2 hits, and the Auggies tagged three SMU pitchers for 11 more runs as Augsburg completed the sweep with an 11-1 win.

"Augsburg is a good team -- they can hit the ball and score runs, that's for sure," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, who saw his team's losing streak climb to nine with the back-to-back losses. "It was good to see us break out a bit offensively in that first game, it's just too bad we couldn't do that again in the second."

The Auggies (14-8-1 overall, 4-2 MIAC) jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two innings in Game 1, but SMU (3-17 overall, 1-7 MIAC) responded with five runs -- all with two out -- in the bottom of the third to cut the gap to 7-5. Augsburg regained control with five runs in the top of the fifth and took a 13-6 lead into the bottom of the seventh -- when the Cardinals promptly plated five runs, and had the tying run at the plate with two outs, only to have the rally ended on a Dan Cosgrove strikeout.

"We've been struggling to score runs, so to score 11 -- and rally from down 7-0 and 13-6 --was good to see," said Whaley. "(Augsburg) just hit the ball a little better than we did."

Ricky Schreier (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) went 3-for-5 with three runs scored, two RBI and a double, while Nate Jackson (Jr., Richfield, Minn.) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBI. Werner had three RBI in the first game. Brian Bambenek (Jr., St. Charles, Minn.) had a triple.

Augsburg hit the ball a lot better in Game 2, as the Auggies scored twice in the third, three times in the fourth, five times in the fifth and once in the sixth.

Four players had two hits each in the second game -- Schreier, Darren Ginther (Sr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS), Jeff Stomberg (So., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) and Bambenek. Schreier had a double and triple and drove in two runs, while Ginther added a triple, driving in two runs.

Augsburg returns to MIAC play with a doubleheader against Gustavus on Saturday (4/15) at 1 p.m. at Parade Stadium. St. Mary's has a nonconference doubleheader at Luther (Iowa) on Thursday (4/13) at 1 p.m.