Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. – No. 20 Saint John's advanced to Championship Sunday with a 2-1 win over St. Thomas on Saturday, May 12, at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul.

The Johnnies (33-7, 16-4 MIAC) play Bethel (31-9, 14-6 MIAC) at 11 a.m. and need to defeat the Royals twice to win the MIAC Playoff championship and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.



Saturday night's victory set a school record for wins, surpassing the old mark of 32 set in 2016 (32-14).

The Johnnies left 10 on base and batted 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, but junior Bennett Wiggins (St. Anthony, Minn.) recorded another quality start. He allowed the one run on four hits in eight innings to improve to 6-2 on the year. He struck out eight and walked one, SJU's first base-on-ball of the MIAC Tournament and Wiggins' third in 50 innings this season.

Senior second baseman Brennan Swan (Plymouth, Minn./Totino-Grace) and sophomore left-fielder Aaron Kloeppner (Dayton, Minn./Champlin Park) hit back-to-back singles with one out and Ulrich walked to load the bases in the ninth, Jackson's sac fly to center field brought in what proved to be the game-winning run. Swan (2) and Kloeppner (3) combined for five of the team's six hits from the Nos. 8-9 spots in the lineup.

SJU found the scoreboard first in the top of the sixth inning without recording a hit. Junior centerfielder Max Jackson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) and senior first baseman Jeron Terres (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) coaxed back-to-back, four-pitch walks with one out and moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt from senior catcher Dominick Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.). Jackson scored on the next pitch when the errant throw went to the backstop.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Avery Lehman, the No. 9 batter, dropped a one-out double down the left-field line and scored on Zach Gottfredsen's RBI single in the bottom half of the inning for UST (20-18, 13-7 MIAC).