Game 1 Box Score |
Game 2 Box Score
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Saint John's baseball staved off elimination and defeated Gustavus Adolphus twice, 4-3 and 4-1, to win the MIAC Playoff championship on Saturday, May 11, at CHS Field in St. Paul.
SJU (32-12, 13-7 MIAC) earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with the postseason title, the program's fourth in the last eight seasons.
The NCAA field will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday, May 13, on www.ncaa.com.
The Johnnies scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning to win the day's first game and force a winner-take-all showdown for the championship. SJU broke a 1-1 tie in game two with three runs in the seventh inning for the crown.
SJU only used three pitchers on the day. Senior
Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) took a line drive off his right shin on the third at-bat of game two, but powered through the pain for a complete-game effort. He allowed an unearned run on three hits in his first start since March 6 (in Ft. Myers, Fla.).
Junior right fielder
Wyatt Ulrich (Indus, Minn./International Falls) went 6-for-8 with five runs scored and two doubles on the day. He batted .600 (12-for-20) with four extra-base hits and eight runs scored in five tournament games.
Saint John's 4, Gustavus Adolphus 1 (Game 2)
Ulrich drove in what proved to be the game-winning run with a one-out double down the right-field line in the top of the seventh inning. Senior center fielder
Max Jackson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) followed with a full-count, two-run single to make it 4-1 in the next at-bat. The two RBI enabled Jackson to break his tie with Jay Kasner '07 to become SJU's all-time leader with 109.
Ulrich singled to start the game, moved to second on a wild pitch and over to third on a sacrifice bunt from Jackson. Junior designated hitter
Joey Stock (Cold Spring, Minn./Saint John's Prep) walked to put runners on the corners before junior third baseman
Jack Schramel (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) brought him in with a sac fly for the game's first run.
Jack Hanson recorded the first hit for Gustavus (25-13, 14-6 MIAC) with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Brice Panning walked to start the bottom of the sixth inning and moved to second on a sac bunt. GAC tied the game when Sam Archer's liner deflected off Auger's glove and slid under senior
Thomas Meland's (Northfield, Minn.) glove at second base.
Auger and Co. evaded trouble with a 4-6-3 double play, SJU's first of the tournament, to end the seventh inning.
The Johnnies survived another scare in the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out and runners on first and second, freshman catcher
Ethan Roe (Golden Valley, Minn./Blake) attempted a snap throw to first base following a 1-0 pitch. The throw, however, went past junior first baseman
Aaron Kloeppner (Dayton, Minn./Champlin Park) and into the right-field corner. There was good reason for the errant throw, however. Roe's throwing arm hit the umpire, who ruled interference and sent the runners back.
Auger recorded a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the win and send SJU to its eighth national tournament (sixth at the Division III level).
Saint John's 4, Gustavus Adolphus 3 (Game 1)
Down 3-2 entering the ninth inning, SJU's top of the lineup came through with three straight singles to load the bases. Schramel tied the game with an RBI single and senior left fielder
Jack Wingerd (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) brought in his high-school teammate, Jackson, for the go-ahead run on a suicide-squeeze bunt.
The Johnnies nearly tied the game in the top of the eighth inning, producing runners on second and third with one out, but GAC squashed the threat with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
A two-out walk advanced to third base, but freshman
Nathan Brandecker (South St. Paul, Minn.) recorded a strikeout to end the game. Brandecker earned the win, allowing two unearned runs on one hit in five innings of relief.
Ulrich started the game with a triple and scored on a two-out, RBI single from Wingerd. Ulrich started the third inning with a four-pitch walk, went to second on a groundout from Jackson and scored on a sinking line drive off the bat of Stock to make it 2-0.
SJU loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fourth but did not score. The momentum shift coaxed a single run for the Gusties in the bottom half of the inning off senior
Alex Budde (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori). Budde made his second collegiate start, his 10th appearance of the season, and allowed the one run on four hits in four innings.
Gustavus gained a 3-2 lead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
