Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Saint John's baseball bounced back with a 6-3 win over Concordia-Moorhead in the MIAC Tournament on Friday, May 13, in St. Paul.

The Johnnies (24-16 overall) advance to face the losing team between Bethel and Gustavus Adolphus, which play at 3 p.m., in another elimination game at 6 p.m. tonight at CHS Field.

SJU batted 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position and overcame a 3-1 deficit by scoring five runs over the game's final four innings.

Junior lefty Casey Trapp (Blaine, Minn./Centennial) went the distance, allowing the three runs on nine hits. He struck out eight to break SJU's single-season strikeout record of 71 set by Andy Schneider '00 in 1998. Trapp improved to 5-1 and finished with 137 pitches, including 52 through the first two innings, for his fifth complete game of the season.

The strike zone shrunk for Trapp in the bottom of the second inning and the Cobbers (5-16 overall) loaded the bases with three infield singles. Trapp nearly escaped the inning with two straight strikeouts, but Andy Gravdahl lifted a two-out, bloop single just over the head of junior second baseman Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) for a 2-0 lead.

Sophomore first baseman Andrew Mahlke (Victoria, Minn./Chanhassen) walked on four pitches to start the fifth and advanced to second on sophomore third baseman Joe Becker's (New Prague, Minn.) groundout to third base. Becker was initially ruled out to end the inning, but the umpires conferred while SJU was warming up and change the call that the first baseman pulled his foot off the bag due to the throw. Dauk singled in the next at-bat to cut the Johnnies' deficit to 2-1, but Becker was thrown out at third to end the inning.

The Cobbers gained the run back in the bottom half of the fifth when Gravdahl walked on four pitches with one out and scored on Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe's two-out single to center. Trapp had set down eight consecutive before the four-pitch walk.

Senior catcher Ethan Roe (Golden Valley, Minn./Blake) tied the game at 3-3 by crushing his 12th home run of the season, and 25th of his career, in the sixth inning.

The Johnnies gained a 4-3 lead with a manufactured run in the top of the seventh inning. Junior shortstop Matthew Hayford (Rochester, Minn./Lourdes) walked with one out, moved to second on a balk, on to third on a single from Becker and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Dauk.

Trapp's strikeout in the seventh inning, his seventh of the game, set the SJU record. The Cobbers had runners on first and second, but Trapp induced a 5-3 double play to end the frame.

Ethan Roe just missed his second homer of the game with one out in the eighth inning, but the ball bounced near the top of the left-field fence for a double. The double, Roe's 33rd of his career, enabled him to break his tie with Jamie Louwagie '02 for third in SJU history.

Ethan Roe stole third, senior right fielder Soren Roe (Golden Valley, Minn./Blake) reached via walk and sophomore left fielder Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury) doubled down the left-field line with two outs to make it a 5-3 game. Hayford ended the scoring with an infield single that brought in Soren.