Game 1 Box Score |
Game 2 Box Score
ST. PETER, Minn. – Saint John's baseball returned to conference play and settled for a doubleheader split at Gustavus Adolphus on Monday, April 17, in St. Peter.
The Johnnies (17-8, 7-3 MIAC) rode the arm of sophomore
Jake Dickmeyer (Woodbury, Minn.) to a 2-0 victory in game one, but saw its win streak end at eight games with a 7-3 defeat in the nightcap.
SJU batted .242 (15-for-62), including a 4-for-20 performance with runners in scoring position, and left 20 men on base (11 in game two alone) on the day.
Gustavus (17-9, 5-3 MIAC) entered the doubleheader batting .322 on the year and .340 in six conference games, and collected a .182 average (10-for-55) on the afternoon.
Dickmeyer went the distance in game one, allowing only two hits with eight strikeouts and no walks to improve to 5-0 this season (7-0 career).
The leadoff man reached for SJU in five of the first six innings but did not score. Back-to-back, one-out singles from junior second baseman
Brennan Swan (Plymouth, Minn./Totino-Grace) and freshman
Wyatt Ulrich (Indus, Minn./International Falls) in the seventh inning, followed by a fielder's choice from sophomore centerfielder
Max Jackson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall), put runners at the corners for senior third baseman
Derek Schiebel (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) with two outs. GAC brought in its top reliever, Casey Lewandoski (2.01 ERA in 10 appearances/22.1 innings) to face the two-time All-Region honoree, who drove a two-run single up the middle for what proved to be the game-winning hit.
Bad luck struck senior starter
Alex Kendall (St. Cloud, Minn./Saint John's Prep) for a single run in each of the first two innings in game two. A groundball headed to Swan, what would have been the third and final out, hit the base umpire in the first inning. Brock Peterson singled through the right side in the next at-bat to give GAC a 1-0 lead. The Gusties added another run, unearned, on a slow, two-out dribbler up the middle in the second inning.
A sacrifice fly from Schiebel put SJU on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth and the visitors rallied for a two-out run in the seventh to tie it. Schleper walked, moved to second on a single from Swan and scored on an RBI single from Ulrich. SJU loaded the bases but left them stranded.
The Gusties started the bottom half of the seventh by reaching on an error and then poked back-to-back doubles, the latter being a two-run sac fly-turned-double misjudged in the outfield. Josh Chatfield made it 6-2 with a two-out, two-run homer down the right-field line.
The Johnnies put together another two-out rally for a run in the eighth inning. Senior outfielder
Blake Langerud (Faribault, Minn./Bethlehem Academy) walked, freshman shortstop
Michael Gruber (Glenwood, Minn./Minnewaska) singled and junior catcher
Dominick Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) drove an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-3.
GAC took advantage of a leadoff walk from junior
Ted Christian (Le Center, Minn./Tri-City United) that eventually scored on a two-out wild pitch to end the scoring in the bottom of the eighth.
Kendall took the loss (3-3 record), allowing six runs (two earned) on seven hits in seven innings of work. He struck out four and walked one.
Ulrich went 3-for-5 in game two and finished with a 5-for-9 day to extend his hit streak to 16 games.
Schiebel went 3-for-8 with three RBI in the doubleheader. The double in game two was the 30th of his career (fourth in SJU history), while the three RBI enabled him to move into 10th in school history (79).
The Johnnies return to the road for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader at St. Olaf on Wednesday, April 19, in Northfield.
