Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's baseball wrapped up non-conference play with a 7-6 loss to Crown on Monday, April 29, at Haugen Field at Becker Park.
The Polars (16-16, 13-5 UMAC) scored what proved to be the game-winning runs, unearned with two outs, in the top of the eighth inning to hand SJU (22-12, 11-5 MIAC) its fourth one-run loss of the season.
SJU recorded 10 first-pitch outs at the plate and finished 4-for-16 with runners on base and 1-for-10 with two outs in the defeat.
Sophomore pitcher
Vinny Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) made his second start of the season and set down the first 13 batters faced, but did not record the decision. He allowed one hit and struck out four with one walk in five innings pitched. Three relievers surrendered 11 hits and the seven runs (four earned) over the next three frames.
Senior left fielder
Jack Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) gave SJU a quick 2-0 lead with a two-run homer, his fourth of the season and 15th of his career, with two outs in the bottom of the first inning and junior catcher
Blake Mellgren (Northfield, Minn.) made it 4-0 with another two-run shot – his third of the season – in the bottom of the second.
Ashton Long tied the game with a grand slam – a ball that looked to be a routine flyball that the jet stream carried over the fence in right field – in the top of the sixth inning.
Crown gained a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning, but the Johnnies answered with two runs in the bottom half for their final advantage of the ballgame. Junior first baseman
Jackson Peter (Elrosa, Minn./Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) reached via error to start the rally and Mellgren was hit by a pitch. Senior right fielder
Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury) roped his 12th double of the season to plate Peter and senior third baseman
Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.) gave the home team the lead when he laced a 0-2 pitch to left field for an RBI single two batters later. Becker now has 51 RBI, which tie him with former teammate
Max Nyrop '23 for second-most in an SJU season and are one shy of the program record of 52 set by Ryan Order '97 in 1997.
The Johnnies, however, left the bases loaded with one out in the seventh. The jet stream failed to aid SJU in the ninth inning as Erickson and senior second baseman
Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) recorded loud outs to the warning track.
Krueger took the hard-luck loss, his first of the season (2-1 record), after he allowed the two unearned runs on four hits in the eighth inning.
The Johnnies travel to face Macalester (8-28, 2-16 MIAC) for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader on Wednesday, May 1, in St. Paul. The games were moved to Division II Concordia-St. Paul's Barnes Field due to the Scots' home MIAC playoff tennis matches on Wednesday (the courts are adjacent to Nicholson Field).
