Saint John's baseball plays host to Bethel for its MIAC opener at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at Haugen Field at Becker Park in Collegeville. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

NORTHWESTERN MOVED TO APRIL 15: The Johnnies were scheduled to host Northwestern (Minn.) for a non-conference doubleheader on March 25 but that weekend's snowfall forced a postponement to Monday, April 15, in Collegeville.

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (8-6, 0-0 MIAC) went 2-2 over three days (March 16-18) in Tucson, Ariz. The Johnnies started the trip with a 12-6 win over NAIA SAGU-American Indian College (Ariz.) and split a doubleheader with Wesleyan (Conn.; L, 2-5; W, 4-1), before they allowed five runs in the seventh inning for a 5-4 loss to Luther (Iowa) in the trip's finale.

SJU batted .287 with 12 extra-base hits (eight doubles, two triples and two home runs), but left 33 men on base in the four games. The pitching staff allowed just a .217 opponent batting average with 28 strikeouts in 32 innings. Individually, senior third baseman Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.) batted .500 (7-for-14) with two homers, a double, triple, five RBI and four runs scored. Senior left fielder Jack Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) matched Becker with seven hits (.438, 7-for-16) and also scored four runs.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK x4: Senior Kody Dalen (Carver, Minn./Chanhassen) was named the MIAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season – and the fourth-straight for SJU – last Monday (March 25). Dalen pitched six no-hit innings but did not get the decision in the Johnnies' 5-4 loss to Luther (Iowa) back on March 18 in Tucson, Ariz. He struck out seven and walked four. Luther entered the game with an 11-4 record and batting .331 with a .514 slugging percentage and .417 on-base percentage. 

The seven strikeouts enabled Dalen to break his tie with Brett Kramer '11 and pass Denny Coleman '69 for fifth on SJU's all-time list with 153. He is 2-0 with a 0.43 ERA, .108 opponent batting average and 23 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched this spring. Dalen earned his first MIAC award of the season March 4, followed by senior Jeremy Klick (Maple Grove, Minn.) March 11 and senior Griffin Larson (Edina, Minn.) last Monday (March 18). The Johnnies saw the streak end on Monday (April 1) after they did not play last week and did not have an eligible nominee.

RECORD BOOK UPDATE: Becker is currently third in school history in doubles (35), six from the program record of 41 owned by Matt Butorac '11. Becker is also fifth in RBI (102), tied for seventh in total bases (230), tied for eighth in triples (7) and 10th in home runs (13). The program's all-time leader in hit-by-pitch with 57, senior second baseman Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) is also third in SJU history in runs scored (129), tied for fourth in triples (8), fifth in walks (70) and tied for ninth in doubles (29). Dauk needs five runs to tie Wyatt Ulrich '20 for the SJU record. Senior right fielder Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury) is tied for fourth in triples (8), while senior left fielder Jack Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) is tied for sixth in doubles (32).

DIVISION III LEADERS: The Johnnies currently (through games of April 1) lead 382 teams in NCAA Division III in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.64) and WHIP (1.09), are third in walks allowed per nine innings (2.68) and sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (7.14). Individually, Dalen leads Division III in ERA (0.43) and Larson is the national leader in WHIP (0.36). Dalen is also third in hits allowed per nine innings (3.00) and sixth in WHIP (0.71), while Larson is second in hits allowed per nine innings (2.57), fifth in ERA (0.64), seventh in strikeout-to-walk ratio (17.00) and ninth in walks allowed per nine innings (0.64). Junior Connor Hartley (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount) is fifth in walks allowed per nine innings (0.39) and is tied with Larson in strikeout-to-walk ratio (17.00). At the plate, Becker is fifth in doubles per game (0.64) and Dauk is 14th in triples per game (0.21).

MIAC OPENERS: The Johnnies are 39-19 in the MIAC opener since 1993, including a 21-7 record in Collegeville and a 4-4 record against Bethel (2-2 each in Arden Hills and Collegeville). 

A LOOK AT THE ROYALS: Bethel (7-6, 0-0 MIAC) went 5-3 on its spring-break trip March 8-16 to Florida (Auburndale and Davenport), including wins over three top-10 teams: 10-8 over then-No. 10 Aurora (Ill.), 7-4 over then-No. 10 Rowan (N.J.) and 18-8 over then-No. 9 Johns Hopkins (Md.). Senior Matthew Carlsen leads the team with a .434 batting average (23-for-53) and junior Xavier Lortie had a team-best 14 RBI. Junior Nolan Jurgenson is sixth in Division III in walks per game (1.25). The Royals' pitching staff has an 8.14 ERA and a .333 opponent batting average.

LAST YEAR: SJU handed league-leading Bethel its first conference losses of the season with a doubleheader sweep – 11-3 and 11-10 – last April 26 (2023) in Collegeville. The Johnnies mashed to a .464 batting average – totaling 32 hits (32-for-69) – including .538 (14-for-26) with runners in scoring position. Ten of the hits were for extra bases: five doubles, a triple and four home runs. SJU batted .552 (16-for-29) and drove in 15 of the day's 22 runs with two outs. Bethel entered the day with a 3.52 ERA and a .264 opponent batting average on the season.

Four Johnnies totaled a homer and four RBI each on the afternoon. Senior center fielder Jordan Amundson (Eden Prairie, Minn.) batted for the cycle in the doubleheader, going 6-for-8 with four runs scored, while Dauk went 4-for-7 with four runs scored. Dauk clobbered the go-ahead, three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning in game two. First baseman Max Nyrop '23 and senior third baseman Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.) collected three hits apiece.

SJU's starting catchers – Matt Herold '23 and Zach Selchow '23 – both went 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

Game 1
Fueled by a pair of crooked innings, the home team jumped out to an 11-0 lead through the first four innings of game one. Five-consecutive Johnnies drove in a run en route to a six-run bottom of the second and SJU added four more runs, including a three-run bomb from Becker, in the third.

Dalen took care of the rest for SJU on the hill. He allowed the three runs, though all three were unearned, on three hits in 4.2 innings for the win. He struck out a career-high nine and walked two.

Jack Haring '23 got out of the jam in the fifth inning with a strikeout and Hartley struck out two in two scoreless innings of relief.

Game 2
BU struck first in game two when a lazy flyball fell in no-man's land out in right with two outs to plate two runs in the top of the first inning. The Johnnies' bats stayed hot and totaled six runs on nine hits through the first two innings of BU's Max Sutter. Sutter started the game with a 4-0 record, 2.00 ERA and a .231 opponent batting average in 36 innings this spring, but SJU tagged him for six runs on 14 hits in five innings of work for the no-decision. 

Nyrop tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run blast, his fifth homer of the season and 23rd of his career, in the bottom of the first inning. The Johnnies then recorded four-consecutive hits with two outs in the bottom of the second to gain a 6-2 lead.

The Royals answered by scoring eight-straight runs (five earned) – a six-run third inning and two in the sixth – before SJU's five-run seventh.

Down 10-6, Amundson started the bottom of the seventh inning with a triple and scored on junior Jackson Peter's (Elrosa, Minn./Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) RBI double on the next at-bat. He came around to score on senior designated hitter Owen Best's (Aurora, Colo./Regis Jesuit) RBI single. With two outs, Selchow kept the rally alive with a single and Erickson reached on an error before Dauk cranked a 3-2 pitch deep to right field for the go-ahead home run.

Junior Kade Bowar (Burnsville, Minn.) picked up the win in relief (2-0 record) after he pitched the scoreless seventh and eighth innings.

SERIES HISTORY: SJU is 46-31 against Bethel since 1988, including a 20-13 record in Collegeville. The Johnnies hold an 18-16 edge in the series over the last 34 meetings overall (since 2009).