Saint John's baseball hosts Crown for its home opener – a single, nine-inning game – at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at Haugen Field at Becker Park. – Live Stats/Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (8-8 overall) went 4-2 over three days last weekend (March 18-20) in Tucson, Ariz. The Johnnies started the trip with a doubleheader split vs. Wesleyan (Conn.; L, 1-3; W, 12-8) and split a pair of scheduled nine-inning games on Sunday: a 17-7 loss in seven innings to Concordia (Wis.) and a 12-7 win over Redlands (Calif.) in 10 innings. SJU finished the trip Monday with a doubleheader sweep of Oberlin (Ohio), 12-2 and 10-4.

THE TRIP: SJU scored 54 runs and batted .365 (70-for-192) with 22 extra-base hits, including 16 doubles, over the six games. The pitching trio of senior Jack Haring (Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine), sophomore Connor Hartley (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount) and senior Cade Marsolek (Savage, Minn./Burnsville) combined for 16 innings (seven appearances) and zero earned runs allowed on the trip. 

APPROACHING 100 HITS: Four Johnnies are approaching the 100-career hit club:

-senior second baseman Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview): 91 
-junior third baseman Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.): 89
-junior left fielder Jack Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.): 85
-junior right fielder Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury): 82

ELSEWHERE IN THE RECORD BOOK: A pair of Johnnies gained ground within the program's record book on the trip:

-Senior Max Nyrop (Alameda, Calif.) hit the 20th home run of his career March 19 vs. Concordia (Wis.), which moved him into a tie with Jed Riegelman '04 for second in program history. He is now five shy of the record held by former teammate Ethan Roe '22. Nyrop is also tied with Riegelman and Ryan Giefer '95 for fifth in school history with 98 career RBI and is tied with Brent Schloe '00 for seventh in career doubles (28).
-Senior pitcher Casey Trapp (Blaine, Minn./Centennial) is tied with Denny Coleman '69 for fourth on SJU's strikeout list with 151 and has 152.1 career innings pitched, 6.2 behind former teammate Nathan Brandecker '22 in 10th.

HOME TEAM, PLEASE: Out of the 16 neutral-site games so far this spring, SJU is 4-6 in 10 as the visiting team, compared to a 4-2 record as the home team.

HOME ON APRIL 1: The Johnnies' 1 p.m. doubleheader scheduled for next Saturday, April 1, at Concordia has been moved to Collegeville due to the construction of the Cobbers' new grandstand. SJU will be the "visiting" team in both games.

A LOOK AT THE POLARS: Crown (6-6 overall) went 4-6 from March 10-17 in Florida (between Davenport and Auburndale), including losses in the last three games (outscored 31-11). The Polars were picked to finish third in the UMAC preseason poll after they won their first UMAC Tournament and reached the NCAA Regional last spring, finishing with a 30-15 record (16-5 UMAC). Senior Howie Hatton leads the team in batting average (.500), runs scored (15), home runs (3) and RBI (11), and is tied with sophomore Cael Magill with 18 hits. The pitching staff has held the opposition to a .255 batting average so far this season, but has a 6.67 ERA with 72 free passes (55 walks and 17 hit batsmen) in 85 innings. 

LAST YEAR: SJU opened its home schedule with a doubleheader sweep of Crown, 3-1 and 6-5, last March 20 (2022) in Collegeville.

at Saint John's 3, Crown 1
SJU gained an early 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning. Shortstop Matthew Hayford brought in the first with an RBI single and catcher Ethan Roe '22 made it 2-0 with an RBI groundout. Schleper padded the Johnnies' lead with an RBI single in the third inning.
 
Bailey Sarto recorded the lone blemish for Crown, a two-out homer in the top of the fifth inning.
 
Pitcher Nathan Brandecker '22 allowed seven hits, six singles, to improve to 3-0 on the season. He struck out six and did not issue a free pass.
 
at Saint John's 6, Crown 5
The Storm found the scoreboard first with an unearned run, via passed ball, in the top of the first inning. The Johnnies answered with a sacrifice fly from Soren Roe '22 in the bottom half of the first and plated two unearned runs on a seeing-eye single from Becker with two outs in the second. Schleper hammered a 1-0 pitch over the right-field fence for his second homer of the season and fifth of his career to lead off the fourth inning and give SJU a 4-1 lead.
 
Crown cut its deficit to 4-2 with an unearned run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning, though SJU took advantage of a bases-loaded wild pitch in the sixth.
 
The Storm sent five men to the plate and scored three runs before an out was recorded to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh inning. That is, until junior Griffin Larson (Edina, Minn.) came on in relief and slammed the door shut. With runners on the corners and nobody out, Larson struck out the first two batters he faced and induced a fly ball to right. That pace continued in the next two innings, as Larson set down the Storm in order and totaled five more strikeouts to earn his first collegiate win.
 
Soren Roe launched a 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence for the walk-off homer, his second long ball of the season and sixth as a Johnnie. 
 
Junior Kody Dalen (Carver, Minn./Chanhassen) allowed two unearned runs on eight hits in the no-decision. He struck out four and walked two in 5.2 innings. Larson's clean stat sheet included seven strikeouts in three hitless and scoreless innings.
 
Junior centerfielder Jordan Amundson (Eden Prairie, Minn.) led SJU with a 4-for-6 performance on the day.
 
The Johnnies batted only 5-for-29 (.172) with runners on base in the twinbill, though Crown went just 2-for-16 (.125) with runners in scoring position. Both teams left 10 men on base in game two and 31 total (17 for SJU, 14 for Crown).

SERIES HISTORY: SJU is 3-0 all-time against Crown, in which all three games were played in Collegeville. Prior to last year's sweep, SJU topped the Storm 13-10 on March 7, 2021.