The Johnnie baseball team ends its Metrodome dates with a 4:30 p.m. doubleheader Thursday, March 14, against Wisconsin-Superior.
A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: No. 25 Wisconsin-Stevens Point scored seven runs, six unearned, in the top of the eighth to defeat Saint John's (2-3 overall) 12-5 in the first game of a doubleheader on March 11 at the Metrodome. The Pointers scored three runs, all with two outs, in the fifth inning of the second contest to gain a 5-3 lead after five innings when the game was called due to the time limit. Senior Connor Cline (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) surrendered a pair of runs, including a triple on the first pitch of the game, while striking out four (wild pitch) in the top of the first inning. He has now allowed a triple in the first inning of each of his three starts on the mound this season.
Sophomore Geno Larkin (Eden Prairie, Minn.) walked to start the second inning, advanced to third on back-to-back hits from seniors Joey Long (Belvidere, Ill./Rockford Boylan) and Max Forster (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins), and scored on a sacrifice fly from senior Alex Powell (Hopkins, Minn.) to cut the deficit to 2-1. Stevens Point, however, responded with two more runs in the third and another in the fourth to build a 4-1 lead.
Sophomore Aaron Pfaff (New Ulm, Minn./Cathedral) and junior Luke Larson (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) walked to start the bottom of the fifth before Cline cut the deficit to one (5-4) with a three-run homer to left-center. Long laced a two-out double and came around to score following three consecutive walks to tie the game.
The fifth inning ended on a controversial play in which SJU was denied the go-ahead run. With the bases loaded and a full count, Pfaff hit a lazy high-chopper to third base. The runner on second base, sophomore Brett Becker (North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View), beat the play to third base, but slid over the bag and was forced to scramble back to the base. The third baseman proceeded to lunge at Becker and make the out a few seconds after the play was believed to be over. The home-plate umpire, however, ruled that Forster did not cross the plate before the out at third base was made.
The Johnnies had opportunities to take the lead in both the sixth and seventh innings but could not capitalize. Cline doubled with one out in the sixth but was left stranded. Forster hit a routine flyball to right field to start the bottom of the seventh, but the outfielder dropped it, only to throw out Forster at third on a close play.
Harry Steldt started the eighth with a slow roller up the middle and advanced to second on a sac bunt. He gained second on a groundball to second, what would have been the second out, but the runner was ruled safe. Casey Barnes then cracked a double to bring in Nash Bell, Steldt's pinch-runner, the lone earned run of the seven scored in the inning. Nine of UWSP's 14 hits in the game were groundball/infield singles.
Cline allowed five innings on eight hits in five innings of work. He struck out nine and walked two while going 3-for-4 with three RBI, the home run and a double. Sophomore Collin Felhaber (North St. Paul, Minn.) took the loss, allowing seven runs (one earned) in 2.2 innings. Sophomore Jack Hamilton (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) recorded the final out in his first varsity appearance.
CLINE CARRYING THE LINEUP: Cline currently leads the team in batting average (.526), hits (10), extra-base hits (5), doubles (4), RBI (5), slugging percentage (.895) and on-base percentage (.591) through five games this season. The rest of the team, however, is batting only .227 (30-for-132).
LOB: SJU has out-hit its competition 40-38 but has left 44 runners on base in 39 innings played.
A LOOK AT THE YELLOWJACKETS: Wisconsin-Superior (0-2 overall) opened its season with a pair of losses, 7-2 and 5-1, to Augsburg March 6 at the Metrodome. The Yellowjackets were picked to finish fifth out of seven teams in the WIAC this season after narrowly missing the conference playoffs in 2012. Junior outfielder Wyatt Soderquist posted three of the team's 11 hits in the two losses. He was named All-WIAC honorable mention last spring. Sophomore infielder T.J. Evanson, the only other returning All-WIAC honoree, is still in search of his first hit of the season after leading the WIAC with 10 home runs in 2012.
SERIES HISTORY: SJU is 3-2 all-time against Superior. All five games were decided by three runs or less, including a pair of losses (3-0 and 3-1) the last time the two schools met on March 27, 2008, at the Metrodome.
