Game 1 Box Score |
Game 2 Box Score
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Saint John's baseball swept NAIA Valley City State (N.D.), 9-3 and 2-1 in eight innings, on Wednesday, March 1, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Senior third baseman
Derek Schiebel (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) led SJU (3-1 overall) at the plate, going 6-for-7 with four doubles and five RBI in the two games. The six-hit performance enabled him to move into seventh on SJU's all-time hits list at 140.
The Vikings (1-10 overall) started game one with three straight hits on 1-2 counts, all of which came around to score, off sophomore
Jake Dickmeyer (Woodbury, Minn.). He buckled down, however, and allowed three hits in the next 18 batters faced to earn the win. Dickmeyer struck out two in five innings of work.
The Johnnies batted around in the top of the second inning, fueled by Schiebel's bases-clearing double. Back-to-back RBI doubles from sophomore outfielder
Max Jackson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) and Schiebel made it 8-3 in the fourth inning and junior catcher
Dominick Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) ended the scoring with an RBI groundout, an unearned run, in the fifth.
Junior
Ted Christian (Le Center, Minn./Tri-City United) and sophomore
Cameron Jurek (Foley, Minn.) pitched a scoreless inning of relief each.
Jackson provided the heroics with a walk-off single down the left-field line for game two's 2-1 win. Sophomore left-fielder
Jack Wingerd (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) tripled to deep, left-centerfield to lead off the bottom of the eighth before Jackson's full-count poke down the line. The Johnnies cracked eight extra-base hits on the day.
Schiebel gave SJU a 1-0 lead with an RBI double following Wingerd's lead-off single in the third inning.
The Vikings tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI groundout off junior
Ben Etzell (Greenbank, Wash./Coupeville) in the top of the sixth inning.
Freshman
Joey Stock (Cold Spring, Minn./Saint John's Prep) pitched a scoreless top of the eighth inning to earn his first collegiate win.
Sophomore
Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn.) started on the hill for SJU in game two and allowed two hits, with two strikeouts, in three innings. Etzell allowed the lone run on one hit in his three innings of work and senior
Alex Kendall (St. Cloud, Minn./Saint John's Prep) pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief.
SJU's pitching staff held VCSU to a .161 batting average (9-for-56) on the day and now has 21 strikeouts, to only one walk, in four games (31 innings) so far this season.
The Johnnies open their spring-break trip, 10 games over six days, with a nine-inning contest against Lakeland (Wis.) at 6 p.m. EST Sunday, March 5, in Ft. Myers, Fla.