Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

MINNETONKA, Minn. – Saint John's baseball swept St. Thomas, 9-6 and 5-1, to earn its second MIAC Playoff Championship in the last four seasons on Sunday, May 10, at Veterans Field in Minnetonka.

The Johnnies (26-14, 12-6 MIAC) capped a 4-0 run through the losers' bracket, as the visiting team in all four games, to become just the second team to lose its opener and win the title in the 16-year history of the MIAC Tournament.

SJU will make its fourth appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament May 13-16 at a location to be announced. The tournament field is expected to be released late (11 p.m. CDT) tonight.

St. Thomas (24-16-1, 11-7 MIAC) entered the day having scored 21 runs in the first two games of the tournament, but was held to seven runs and a .232 batting average (16-for-69) by the Johnnies.

Junior Patrick Strey (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) pitched a gem in game two, allowing an unearned run on six hits in 7.1 innings. He retired the first eight batters faced, struck out three and walked one to improve to 3-3 on the year.

Junior catcher Gabe MacDonald (Minneapolis, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret's) put SJU on the scoreboard first with a solo home run, his second homer of the game and fifth of the season, in the top of the fourth. The blast extended his hitting streak to 26 games.

A key defensive play of the game occurred in the fourth inning when senior leftfielder Tom Druk (Plymouth, Minn./Orono) robbed UST's Ryan Gerber of a two-run homer.

Senior centerfield Aaron Pfaff (New Ulm, Minn./Cathedral) walked to start the fifth inning off the Tommies' Bill Ferderer before sophomore third baseman Derek Schiebel (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) grooved a standup, RBI triple. Ferderer hit junior shortstop Logan Hershey (Maple Grove, Minn.) and struck out the next two SJU batters, but walked junior rightfielder Mike Stegora (Red Wing, Minn.) and hit Druk to give SJU a 3-0 lead. Ferderer entered the game with two earned runs allowed (0.67 ERA) in 26.2 innings pitched.

St. Thomas' Anthony Winters reached base on a throwing error by Hershey to start the bottom of the seventh and scored on Waylon Bemboom's two-out, RBI single to erase the shutout.

Back-to-back singles with one out in the bottom of the eighth chased Strey from the game in favor of freshman Ben Etzell (Greenbank, Wash./Coupeville). Brady Johnson singled to load the bases for UST, but Etzell induced a 6-3 double play off the bat of Gerber to end the inning.

Held without an RBI in his previous 21 at-bats in the tournament, senior Kurt Jantscher (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) came through with a clutch two-out, two-run single to pad the Johnnies' lead in the top of ninth.

Etzell registered two flyouts and struck out Zach Gottfredsen for the final out of the ninth to earn his second save in as many days. He allowed only one hit and struck out five in 5.1 scoreless innings of relief (three appearances) in the tournament.

MacDonald and Schiebel led SJU with two hits each. The multi-hit game was Schiebel's team-leading 20th of the season.

Game 1 Recap
The Johnnies rode the arm of junior Joe Stanton (Stillwater, Minn.) and a pair of three-run homers Sunday morning to force the winner-take-all game. Stanton allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits in eight innings to improve to 2-2 on the year. He struck out five and walked three. Five of the Tommies' six runs scored crossed the plate in the final two innings.

SJU started the game with three straight hits to post the first run. Pfaff doubled to start the game, moved up to third on a single from Schiebel and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Hershey.

The Johnnies made it 2-0 with a run in the third, which scored on a double-play ball, before Druk blasted a three-run homer to left, his second of the season, to increase the Johnnies' lead to 5-0 in the fourth.

The Tommies started the bottom half of the inning with two singles and tallied a run on a sacrifice fly from Winters to stop the bleeding, temporarily.

Schiebel walked with one out in the fifth and scored on an RBI double from Hershey to make it 6-1.

Gerber cut the Johnnies' lead to 6-3 with a two-run homer in the eighth inning, his ninth of the season, and Bemboom made it 6-4 with a two-out, RBI triple.

MacDonald extended his hitting streak to 25 games, and the Johnnies' lead to 9-4, with a three-run blast with two outs in the top of the ninth. The home run was his fourth and the team's 30th of the season.

The Tommies tallied two runs, one earned, on wild pitches in the bottom of the ninth. A fielding error and a single greeted Stanton to start the bottom of the ninth. Sophomore Alex Kendall (St. Cloud, Minn./Saint John's Prep) entered the game in relief, but his first pitch was wild and scored the Tommies' fifth run of the game. He walked two to load the bases before Jantscher replaced him. Jantscher threw a wild pitch, plating the sixth run, but settled down with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to Schiebel at third to end the game and earn his eighth save of the season.

Pfaff led SJU with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate and two runs scored. Five other Johnnies had two hits apiece: Druk, Hershey, Jantscher, Schiebel and Stegora.

Notes
SJU batted .362 (72-for-199) with 20 extra-base hits (12 doubles, one triple and seven home runs) in the five games…Pfaff led the Johnnies with a .480 average (12-for-25) and eight runs scored, and recorded a .536 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot…three other Johnnies also batted over .400 for the tournament: senior second baseman Brett Becker (.455, 10-for-22; North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View); Schiebel (.440, 11-for-25) and Jantscher (.409, 9-for-22)…SJU's pitching staff totaled a 4.21 ERA with 40 strikeouts and a .250 opponent batting average in 47 innings on the weekend.