Box Score

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Saint John's baseball suffered a 5-4 defeat in 10 innings to Baldwin Wallace (Ohio) in its first game of the NCAA Regional on Friday, May 17, on the campus of Concordia University-Chicago in River Forest, Ill.

SJU (32-13 overall) faces Buena Vista (Iowa) in an elimination game at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 18.

The Johnnies built a 4-0 lead after 4.5 innings but batted 1-for-11 with two outs and lined out five times.

The Yellow Jackets (26-15 overall) collected 17 hits, 16 of which were singles, and committed five errors.

The Johnnies gained a quick 1-0 lead thanks to back-to-back singles from junior right fielder Wyatt Ulrich (Indus, Minn./International Falls) and senior center fielder Max Jackson (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall), and a throwing error.

SJU added three more runs in the top of the fifth. Freshman catcher Ethan Roe (Golden Valley, Minn./Blake) was hit by a pitch with one out and junior shortstop Michael Gruber (Glenwood, Minn./Minnewaska Area) reached when the third baseman fumbled his sacrifice-bunt attempt. Ulrich loaded the bases with an infield single before Jackson ripped an RBI single to center. Junior designated hitter Joey Stock (Cold Spring, Minn./Saint John's Prep) followed with an RBI single to left and Ulrich crossed the plate when the left fielder misplayed the sinking line drive.

BWU, however, answered with two runs on three hits and an error in the bottom half of the inning. The Johnnies' lead slipped to one in the bottom of the seventh following two singles, a sacrifice bunt and a sac fly. 

The Yellow Jackets punched a pair of soft singles to no-man's land in right field off senior Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) in the bottom of the eighth before Asa Adams pulled an RBI double down the left-field line to tie the game at 4-4. 

SJU left runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, and had runners on first and second with nobody out in the top of the 10th, but did not score.

BWU's No. 9 batter walked on four pitches with one out in the bottom of the 10th and moved to second on a single from Adams. The Johnnies nearly turned an inning-ending double play (3-6-3), but the batter beat the throw to first. With runners on the corners, Kyle Pennington lifted a 0-2 pitch to center field, just out of the reach of a diving Jackson, to give BWU the win. Jackson made a spectacular diving catch for the third out in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Senior Jake Dickmeyer (Woodbury, Minn.) allowed three runs (two earned) on 12 singles in seven innings for the no-decision.