Saint John's baseball visits Hamline for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader on Wednesday, April 12, at CHS Field in St. Paul. – Live Stats/Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (13-8, 4-0 MIAC) opened its MIAC schedule with a pair of doubleheader sweeps last weekend in Collegeville: Friday (April 7) vs. Saint Mary's (6-0 and 10-3) and Saturday (April 8) vs. Carleton (7-4 and 11-0 in eight innings).

The Johnnies batted .397 (50-for-126) with 11 extra-base hits (six doubles, two triples and three home runs), and the leadoff batter reached base at a 48.3 percent (14-for-29) rate. On the mound, SJU's pitchers posted a 1.45 ERA, held the opposition to a .161 batting average (18-for-112) – including .094 (3-for-32) with two outs – with  36 strikeouts in 31 innings.

SOLID STARTS: SJU received quality starts from all four pitchers last weekend:

-Junior Kody Dalen (Carver, Minn./Chanhassen): 6 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 6 strikeouts
-Senior Cody Trapp (Blaine, Minn./Centennial): 5 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, 5 strikeouts
-Senior Wyatt Rudolf (Carver, Minn./Chanhassen): 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 10 strikeouts
-Sophomore Will Fazio (Minneapolis, Minn./Blake): 6 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 7 strikeouts

AND A SHUT-DOWN BULLPEN: Five Johnnie pitchers combined to throw 8.1 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just three hits with eight strikeouts (to one walk): sophomore Connor Hartley (3.0 IP; Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount); freshman Evan Soeffker (2.0 IP; Buffalo, Minn.); senior Jack Haring (1.1 IP; Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine); sophomore Kade Bowar (1.0 IP; Burnsville, Minn.); and junior Jordon Huwe (1.0 IP; Lakeville, Minn./North).

FOUR AT .500 OR HIGHER: Four Johnnies batted .500 or better in the four games. Junior left fielder Jack Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) led the way with a .538 average (7-for-13), while adding four RBI, four runs scored, a double and triple. Sophomore shortstop Jackson Peter (Elrosa, Minn./Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) continued his hot streak by going .533 (8-for-15) at the plate with six runs scored, two RBI and a double. He is now batting .484 (15-for-31) with 13 runs scored and five RBI over his last nine games. 

Junior first baseman Owen Best (Aurora, Colo./Regis Jesuit) and senior designated hitter Max Nyrop (Alameda, Calif.) each batted .500. Best went 4-for-8 with three RBI, while Nyrop clubbed two doubles and a homer, and collected five RBI.

MAX CLIMBING: Nyrop is currently in the Johnnies' top nine in four statistical categories:

-21 home runs: second, four behind the record held by Ethan Roe '22 
-104 RBI: tied with Ethan Roe '22 for third, three behind Jay Kasner '07 in second
-32 doubles: tied for fourth with Jamie Louwagie '02, one behind Ethan Roe '22 in third
-148 hits: ninth, 11 behind Matt Ode '98 in eighth

TWO AWAY: Becker takes the field Wednesday needing two hits to become the 35th Johnnie to reach 100 for his career. He is not alone in the hunt, however. Senior second baseman Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) currently has 96 career hits, while Schleper and junior right fielder Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury) have 94 and 85, respectively.

STREAKS: Becker has reached base safely in all 21 games this season, while Nyrop has done the same in the 19 games he's played. Becker and Schleper are riding eight-game hit streaks.

STAT COMPARISONS
Batting Average
-SJU, .310
-HU, .275

Opponent Batting Average
-SJU, .277
-HU, .321

ERA
-SJU, 5.27
-HU, 7.31

Fielding Percentage
-SJU, .954 
-HU, .938

A LOOK AT THE PIPERS: Hamline (4-15, 0-2 MIAC), which visits St. Olaf today (Tuesday, April 11), has lost its last six games. Senior Mac Enlow leads the team in batting average (.373), hits (28) and doubles (10), while junior Tyler Johnson touts a team-best 16 runs scored, three home runs and 14 RBI.

LAST SPRING: SJU head coach Jerry Haugen '76 earned his 900th and 901st career wins in the Johnnies' doubleheader sweep of Hamline, 4-0 and 9-2, last April 13 (2022) in Collegeville.

The Johnnies batted .355 with five home runs and received complete-game efforts from pitcher Nathan Brandecker '22 and senior lefty Casey Trapp (Blaine, Minn./Centennial), who held the Pipers to a .161 (9-for-56) average.

Game 1
All of the game's scoring came via two, two-run innings. Becker tripled to start the bottom half of the third inning and scored on Nyrop's RBI single. Catcher Ethan Roe '22 made it 2-0 with an RBI double, his ninth of the season and 30th of his career. 

SJU tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Becker added to the cushion with another RBI, this time with a two-out single, and shortstop Matthew Hayford scored from third base on an errant throw from the catcher when Becker stole second base.

Brandecker allowed four hits and struck out five to improve to 4-1 this spring. The complete-game shutout was the first of his collegiate career, as well as his 10th career win.

Nyrop, Becker and Erickson added two hits apiece.

Game 2
SJU scored a run or more in each of the first five innings of game two. Nyrop started the scoring with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first, his fourth of the season and 15th of his career. 

Hayford made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the bottom of the second inning and Owen Dauk added another run with a leadoff home run, his fourth of the season and seventh of his career, in the third.

Both teams took turns scoring a run, but left the bases loaded with nobody out, in the fourth inning. 

Ethan Roe tied the program record for career home runs with his 20th, a two-run shot, in the fifth inning. The homer was his team-leading seventh of the season. Schleper brought in a pair of unearned runs with a two-run homer of his own, his fifth of the season and eighth of his career, two batters later.

Junior center fielder Jordan Amundson (Eden Prairie, Minn.) ended the Johnnies' scoring with a solo homer, his fourth long ball of the season, in the seventh inning.

HU finished the game's scoring with a two-out double, Trapp's 125th pitch of the afternoon, in the ninth.

Trapp moved his record to 3-0 with the win, allowing the two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts.

Dauk led SJU's bats with three hits in game two and finished 4-for-7 on the day. 

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 46-17 against the Pipers since 1993, including a 15-9 record in St. Paul (5-1 at CHS Field). SJU has won 18 of the last 22 meetings overall. All four losses were decided by one run.