Game 1 Box Score |
Game 2 Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – No. 28 Saint John's baseball won the MIAC regular-season championship outright and earned the top seed in this week's MIAC Tournament with a doubleheader sweep, 8-2 and 5-3, of St. Thomas on Sunday, May 6, at Becker Park in Collegeville.
The Johnnies (31-6, 16-4 MIAC) open the double-elimination tournament, their ninth consecutive appearance, against the lowest remaining seed at 3 p.m. Friday, May 11, at CHS Field in St. Paul. SJU's opponent will be determined Thursday, when No. 3 plays No. 6 (3 p.m.) and No. 4 faces No. 5 (7 p.m.) in a pair of elimination games.
The MIAC regular-season title is the program's 14th and first since 1998, when SJU tied St. Thomas with a 15-5 record. The Johnnies' last outright title was in 1994 (17-3 record, two games ahead of 15-5 St. Olaf).
Saint John's 8, St. Thomas 2
SJU jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead thanks to six hits, and two St. Thomas (17-15, 12-6 MIAC) errors, in the first inning off the Tommies' Henry DeCaster.
UST cut into the Johnnies' lead with a two-out, two-run homer from Hunter Hart in the top of the fourth inning. SJU answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning, an RBI fielder's choice from junior designated
Thomas Meland (Northfield, Minn.), and senior first baseman
Jeron Terres (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) ended the scoring with his second double of the game in the sixth.
Junior
Danny Kuhn (Alexandria, Minn.) picked up the win, improving to 7-0 on the year. He allowed the two runs on six hits and struck out five in 4.2 innings pitched. Classmate
Jake Dickmeyer (Woodbury, Minn.) scattered four hits over the final 2.1 innings.
SJU tagged DeCaster, the 2017 MIAC Pitcher of the Year, with eight runs (six earned) on nine hits in the loss (2-5 record).
Saint John's 5, St. Thomas 3
Game two was more of a back-and-forth game between the two rivals. Like the opener, SJU gained a quick lead with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. The Tommies tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning and picked up a 2-1 lead in the top of the third, but the Johnnies answered with two in the bottom half of the inning. The lead was short-lived, however, as the visitors scored an unearned run to tie it at 3-3 in the top of the fourth.
Sophomore right-fielder
Wyatt Ulrich's (Indus, Minn./International Falls) fourth hit of the day, a two-run single, proved to be the game-winning knock in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Dickmeyer started game two and allowed one run on five hits in two innings. Junior
Bennett Wiggins (St. Anthony, Minn.) surrendered two unearned runs in two innings and registered the win, thanks to Ulrich's go-ahead single.
Junior
Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) pitched three innings of scoreless relief to tally his second collegiate save.
Ryan Zimmerman took the loss for UST, allowing five runs (four earned) on only three hits. The MIAC's leader in strikeouts with 67, Zimmerman walked four and did not strike out a Johnnie in the contest.
Notes
-UST batted .190 (4-for-21) with runners in scoring position and left 20 men on base Sunday afternoon.
-SJU went 1-for-13 (.077) with two outs, but the leadoff hitter (to start an inning) reached base safely in seven of the 12 frames (.583). Only three of the Johnnies' 16 leadoff batters reached in yesterday's (May 5) doubleheader split with St. Olaf.
-Terres ended the day 3-for-6 with three doubles and three runs scored. He now has a MIAC-leading 18 doubles on the year, which are the second-most in an SJU season and four behind the record of 22 set by Patrick Strey '16 in 2016). Terres leads the MIAC (all games) in RBI (36) and has 97 collegiate hits (91 at SJU, six at North Dakota State from 2015-16).
-In addition to his 7-0 record, Kuhn touts a 2.06 ERA and a .220 opponent batting average with 45 strikeouts (to six walks) in 48 innings this season. He entered the 2018 campaign with four innings pitched in his collegiate career.
-Wiggins is currently 5-2 with a 2.20 ERA, .226 opponent batting average and 30 strikeouts (to two walks) in 41 innings pitched this season. He has allowed 11 hits and no earned runs, while issuing 14 strikeouts and only one walk, in his last 17.1 innings pitched.
-The 2018 Johnnies became the first team in school history to win 30 regular-season games. SJU is one win from its season record of 32 wins set by the 2016 squad (32-14).
-SJU has won seven of the last 10 meetings with UST.
