Saint John's begins a stretch of three-straight road doubleheaders with a 2:30 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday, April 15, at St. Olaf in Northfield. - Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (16-10, 6-2 MIAC) suffered a 9-2 loss to Minnesota-Morris on Thursday (April 10) at Haugen Field at Becker Park. The Cougars out-hit the Johnnies by a 14-4 margin and jumped out to a 6-1 lead after three innings. The game was the fifth in three days (seventh in five days) for SJU, which went 2-for-16 with runners on base, including 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

UMM started the game with three-consecutive singles, two that did not leave the infield, and gained a quick 2-0 lead on a one-out, two-run single. Junior shortstop Reed Marquardt (Lindstrom, Minn./Chisago Lakes) doubled to start the bottom half of the inning and scored on a one-out double from sophomore left fielder Alex Matchey (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area).

The Cougars tacked on four more runs on five hits in the third inning and added insurance with a single tally in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

Freshman center fielder Nolan Dumonceaux (Forest Lake, Minn.) doubled to start the bottom of the seventh inning, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly from Marquardt to end the game's scoring. Senior first baseman Owen Best (Aurora, Colo./Regis Jesuit) walked four times.

Junior Vinny Schleper (Shakopee, Minn.) was saddled with the loss – SJU's first to the Cougars since March 22, 1991 – after he allowed six runs on 10 hits in 2.2 innings.

CLOSING IN ON MORE RECORDS: Senior third baseman Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.) batted .545 (6-for-11) with a 1.904 OPS (1.182 slugging percentage and .722 on-base percentage), nine runs scored, a home run, triple, double and four RBI in four MIAC games last week. He did not play in the Johnnies' 9-2 non-conference loss to Minnesota-Morris on Thursday, which was the team's fifth in a span of three days (seventh in five days). Becker is currently second in the MIAC in on-base percentage (.606), third in OPS (1.476) and tied for fourth in walks (8) in conference play. 

He is already SJU's all-time leader in home runs (28), RBI (162), doubles (47) and total bases (360), and is tied for the school record for triples with 11. Becker is one run scored from the program record of 158 owned by former teammate Owen Dauk '23, is two hits from the record of 209 held by Max Jackson '19, four games played from the record of 171 (Jackson), nine walks from the record of 82 (Casey Haugen '07) and 34 at-bats from the mark of 628 (Jackson).

A LOOK AT THE OLES: St. Olaf (16-6, 7-1 MIAC) split two one-run games on Saturday (April 12) at Concordia-Moorhead. STO extended its win streak to 10 games with a 4-3 victory in the opener but dropped a 7-6 decision in the nightcap. Junior infielder Mason Buck leads the Oles at the plate with a .410 batting average and 32 hits, and is tied for the team lead in doubles (6) and stolen bases (5). Senior pitcher Jacob Fickenscher is 5-1 with a 3.09 ERA, .240 opponent batting average and 40 strikeouts in 35 innings (six starts). He was named the MIAC Pitcher of the Week today (April 14) after he tossed a five-hit, seven-inning shutout in the Oles' 4-0 victory over St. Scholastica on April 11. The southpaw struck out nine batters in the first complete-game shutout of his collegiate career.

A YEAR AGO: SJU dedicated its new clubhouse, celebrated Senior Day and ended its regular-season schedule with a doubleheader split against St. Olaf last May 4 (2024) in Collegeville. The Johnnies out-hit St. Olaf by a 9-6 margin but left nine men on base in a 2-1 loss. Game two flipped as the Oles totaled 11 hits and left 13 men on base as SJU earned the split with a 5-4 win in the nightcap.

STO, which had already secured the MIAC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the MIAC Tournament, batted .208 (5-for-24) with runners in scoring position and 1-for-17 (.059) with two outs on the afternoon.

Game 1 - St. Olaf 2, at Saint John's 1
Right fielder Rodney Erickson '24 and second baseman Owen Dauk '23 singled to start the bottom of the first inning and advanced thanks to a successful double steal, but SJU failed to bring in a run. 

The rest of the game, which took only 90 minutes to complete, was snappy until STO gained a 1-0 lead on an RBI single from its No. 9 hitter, Matthew Oberlander, in the top of the fifth inning. The Johnnies answered to tie it, however, in the bottom half. First baseman Jackson Peter doubled off the right-field fence with one out and scored on senior catcher Blake Mellgren's (Northfield, Minn.) RBI single in the next at-bat. SJU missed another opportunity when it left the bases loaded four batters later.

A chopper through the right side from Sam Lavin and a double down the left-field line by Joey Glampe scored what proved to be the Oles' game-winning run in the sixth inning. SJU had the game-tying run on second base in both the sixth and seventh innings but could not score the equalizer.

Senior Connor Hartley (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount) took the loss (6-3 record), allowing the two runs on six hits in six innings. He struck out four and did not issue a free pass. Quinn Krueger '24 pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning in relief.

Game 2 - at Saint John's 5, St. Olaf 4
The Johnnies doubled their scoring output from game one with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning in game two thanks to a sacrifice fly from left fielder Jack Schleper '24 and a two-out, RBI single off the bat of Best.

The Oles tied the game on a run-scoring double and RBI groundout in the top of the second, but Dauk gave the lead back to SJU with two-out, RBI double in the bottom half. 

St. Olaf proceeded to tie the game in the third inning and gained a 4-3 lead in the fourth, but left the bases loaded with one out.

Becker walked with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, gained second base on a single from Schleper and scored on a double from Best to tie the game at 4-4. An RBI groundout from center fielder Jordan Amundson '24 brought in Schleper for the go-ahead run.

Sophomore Carter Theisen (Rosemount, Minn.) made the start and gave up the four runs on 10 hits in four innings for the no-decision. Three SJU relievers combined to allow one hit over the final five innings.

V. Schleper posted two hitless innings and Wyatt Rudolf '24 earned his first win of the season (1-2 record) with three strikeouts over the seventh and eighth innings.

Senior lefty Will Fazio (Minneapolis, Minn./Blake) collected a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts for his first collegiate save.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 20-7 against the Oles since 2010, including wins in 14 of the last 18 meetings. SJU is 8-2 in the last five doubleheaders played in Northfield.