ST. PAUL — Apparently, ties do happen in baseball.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes battled the St. Paul Saints to a 2-2 tie Sunday afternoon at Midway Stadium in St. Paul before 1,408 spectators.

Winnipeg rode a solid pitching performance from five different hurlers, who allowed two runs on seven hits, and got a couple timely hits from an offence that is still working itself into regular season form.

“The pitchers threw very well for getting off the bus and pitching, which is never easy,” Goldeyes manager Rick Forney said of Ace Walker, Chris Kaminski, Brian Leach, Dexter Carter and Nick Carr. “It’s something you have to get accustom to.

“Offensively, it’s going to take us a few more at bats. It’s the pre-season. We saw some of the pitching that we did against the University of Winnipeg on Friday and the quality pitching we saw here, it’s a little bit different. It takes you a little while to get your timing.”

St. Paul opened the scoring in the third inning when Ronnie Bourquin doubled in Shane Costa. The Saints would leave the bases loaded in the third though, as Kaminski was able to strikeout former Goldeye Adam Frost to end the inning.

“We were able to get Kaminski in a game with some trouble and he got out of it,” Forney said of his rookie pitcher who came in to relieve Walker, who started the game.

Winnipeg responded in the top of the fourth when Luis Alen drew a two-out walk and then scored on a Matt Cusick double.

“I got a really good swing on it and it felt good. It was good to get on the scoreboard too,” said Cusick, who didn’t register a hit in six at bats against St. Paul in the two games in Winnipeg last week. “I was struggling a bit early in camp and this is a big confidence boost.

“Every day that goes by I am feeling more comfortable in batting practice, at the plate and even in the field. The game is starting to come back. I am just getting the rust off and everyone is like that.”

St. Paul regained the one-run lead in the bottom of the fourth. Jon Townsend was hit by a Kaminski pitch to lead off the inning, before stealing second, moving to third on a single and scoring on a Chris Cates ground ball to second base.

The Goldeyes tied the game in the top of the eighth inning when Chris Roberson scored on a Jon Weber single.

Carr came in the for the bottom of the ninth inning and induced a groundball from veteran Tanner Townsend with two runners on base to end the game.

The Goldeyes and Saints will meet for the fourth and final time in the exhibition season tomorrow night at Midway Stadium. Game time is 7 p.m. The pre-game show on TSN 1290 with Paul Edmonds begins at 6:30 p.m.