St. Thomas starter Eric Veglahn earned his first career shutout with a 10-0 win in the opening game of the D-III World Series. d3photography.com photo by Steve Frommell

By Erik Buchinger
for D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - St. Thomas pitcher Eric Veglahn took a perfect game into the eighth inning as the Tommies defeated Linfield 10-0 in the opening game of the 2014 NCAA Division III World Series from neuroscience group field at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis.

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Veglahn had a complete game shutout, allowing two hits, one walk, and struck out 12 in the first shutout of his career.

“It was one of the better pitched games I have seen in quite a while,” St. Thomas coach Chris Olean said. “For him to step up that way was unbelievable given the stage, one of the better games I have seen pitched.”

Haddeland took the loss and went five innings and allowed three hits, five runs, two earned, walked six and struck out five.

“I definitely didn’t have my stuff today and I tried to work through it,” Haddeland said. “I felt great in warm-ups but I just couldn’t piece it together today.”

Haddeland came in with an 11-1 record and a 0.97 ERA.

Three errors in the first inning gave Linfield in a 5-0 deficit after the top of the first inning in which 10 St. Thomas batters came to the plate against Haddeland.

“It’s certainly not the way we scripted this thing out,” Linfield coach Scott Brosius said.

Haddeland, the two-time D3baseball.com Pitcher of the Year, walked three, gave up two hits and threw a wild pitch in the opening frame.

The first inning began with a four-pitch walk to Ben Podobinski, who stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Waylon Bemboom walked and Jack Hogan reached on an error by first baseman Clayton Truex that scored the first run of the game.

Catcher J.D. Dorgan had two hits and drove in three for the Tommies, while calling a stellar game. d3photography.com photo by Steve Frommell

A sacrifice fly from Tim Kuznar plated Bemboom, followed by consecutive RBI singles from J.D. Dorgan and Kelvin Stroik.

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Two batters later, Nick Degen hit a ball that got past Truex, for his second error of the inning that scored Stroik.

Haddeland finished the inning with a pair of strikeouts to Sam Miller and Podobinski, but St. Thomas held a 5-0 lead.

“Being a pitcher, you can’t ask for more than that,” Veglahn said. “At that point all you have to do is throw strikes and hit your spots. It helps a lot knowing that we’re up five before I even touch the mound.”

The game remained scoreless until the top of the sixth when the Tommies rallied for another five-run inning.

Haddeland was replaced in the sixth inning by Joseph Stevick, who pitched a third of an inning. Stevick gave up six hits, five runs, four earned, a walk and struck out one.

After allowing three singles to the first four batters, Stevick walked Kuzniar and gave up consecutive singles to Dorgan, Stroik, and Brady Johnson.

Cody Erautt came in to take over for Stevick and a passed ball scored Stroik to extend the lead to 10-0.

Jake Wylie broke up Veglahn’s perfect game with a hit a bloop single to left field in front of a diving Kuzniar to lead off the seventh inning.

Veglahn said he did not hear anything from his teammates in the dugout about the perfect game as it got later into the game.

“It was pretty quiet,” Veglahn said.

The Tommies had a similar situation earlier this season on April 26, but Olean said Veglahn’s no-hitter was jinxed by a teammate talking about it.

“Tommy Danczyk screwed up the no-hitter last time, so that was on him,” Olean said. “This one was pretty quiet. He’s in the bullpen now so I thought we were okay.”

Linfield had two batters on in the ninth inning after a hit and a walk, but Veglahn got Nick Fisher to pop out to right field to end the game.

“Right now we can enjoy it, but tomorrow it’s a new day and a new team,” Veglahn said.

St. Thomas advances into the winners bracket and awaits the winner of Baldwin Wallace and Emory in a game scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.