Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's clinched a berth to its second consecutive MIAC Tournament with a doubleheader split against Macalester in its home and regular-season finale on Saturday, May 7, in Collegeville.

Senior shortstop Matt Butorac (Maple Grove, Minn.) went 2-for-2 and drove in four of the Johnnies' five runs, while fellow senior Brett Kramer (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) improved to 4-2 with six shutout innings in game one's 5-0 win. Macalester (23-12, 14-4 MIAC) posted two unearned runs off sophomore Connor Cline (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) edged the Johnnies 3-2 in game two. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak to SJU and was the first for the Scots in Collegeville since May 4, 1996.

The Johnnies (19-12, 13-7 MIAC) earned the No. 4 seed and will play either Macalester or St. Thomas in the tournament opener, a nine-inning game, at 3:30 p.m. this Friday, May 13, at Minnetonka H.S. All of SJU's games will be broadcast live on WBHR-660 AM and streamed on www.gojohnnies.com.

Butorac gave SJU an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first and brought in another with a sac fly in the third. He padded the Johnnies' lead with a two-out, two-run double in the fifth. The double was the 40th of his career.

SJU added an unearned run in the sixth thanks to an RBI triple by senior second baseman Andrew Hengel (Bemidji, Minn.).

The rest was all Kramer. He allowed three hits and struck out six with two walks in six innings of work. He now has a 0.00 ERA with 16 strikeouts and a .194 opponent batting average in 20 innings against Macalester. Kramer enters the postseason boasting a 3-0 record and a 0.95 ERA in 38 MIAC innings (4-2 with a 1.49 ERA in 54.1 innings overall).

Freshman Joey Long (Belvidere, Ill./Rockford Boylan) pitched a scoreless seventh to seal the win and punch SJU's ticket to the postseason tournament.

Macalester scored an unearned run in each of the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead in the nightcap. Freshman outfielder Dylan Graves (Mora, Minn.) started the third inning with a blast to right field for his first collegiate home run. Sophomore outfielder Alex Powell (Hopkins, Minn.) followed with a single, stole second and scored on another Butorac double to tie the game at two apiece.

The Scots were held without an extra-base hit the entire day and plunked a total of nine hits in game two, though eight of them were ground balls. The lone hit to the outfield, a sinking liner that dropped in front of a diving Powell, fueled Mac's go-ahead run in the seventh off Long. Mitch Glasser singled with a ground ball through the left side to start the inning and was pinch run for by David Melms. Long struck out the next batter before Garrett Salzman hit the sinking liner to right, advancing Melms to second. Long recorded the second out with a strikeout of C.J. Smith, but Colin Carpenter hit a dribbler through the right side, scoring Melms from second.

Cline went six innings, allowing two unearned runs on six hits with two strikeouts and five walks. He now has a 4-0 record with a 2.90 ERA in 31 MIAC innings (6-1 record with a 2.31 ERA in 46.2 innings overall). Long took the loss, falling to 3-2 on the year. The earned run was just his second allowed in conference play (15 innings).

Powell ended the day 3-for-6 with three runs scored, while Butorac was 3-for-5 with two doubles and five RBI to extend his current hit streak to 10 games. Butorac ended conference play with the team-lead in batting average (.393), hits (24), doubles (8), extra-base hits (10), RBI (22) and slugging percentage (.607).