Sophomore Colin Wendinger threw a one-hit shutout and juniors Tim Kuzniar and Tyler Peterson each went 6-for-7 on the day to lead No. 2-ranked St. Thomas to a 6-0, 10-4 MIAC baseball sweep of Hamline Tuesday at UST's Koch Diamond.
The Tommies (31-5 overall, 19-1 MIAC), who pushed their home-field win streak to 41, set an MIAC baseball record for winning margin in the standings. They will finish at least seven games ahead of the runner-up team.
UST also tied a conference record with its 19-1 finish, just the fourth team to win 19 MIAC games since the league schedule went to 20 games in 1984. St. Thomas had all three previous 19-1 finishes, in 1996, 1999 and 2012.
Wendinger, who fanned six, retired 19 of the first 20 batters, the lone blemish a third-inning infield error. HU's Mark Radmacher broke up the no-hitter with one out in the seventh inning on a hard smash off the glove of the diving UST shortstop for a clean single into left field.
Wendinger improved to 3-0 with no runs allowed in 20 innings of conference play.
UST plated four runs in the second inning after two were out. Sam Miller's second career homer and Ryan Gerber's two-run single brought home the runs.
In game two, freshman LHP Eric Veglahn blanked Hamline through four innings. Radmacher's three-run homer in the fifth inning pulled Hamline within 6-4, and the Pipers added two more singles to put the tying runners aboard with one out. After Mark Dominik came on in relief, catcher J.D. Dorgan picked a runner off first base and Dominik got a strikeout to keep a two-run lead. UST later used a three-run homer by Dylan Thomas to cap a four-run sixth inning.
Dominik retired seven of the nine batters he faced, six by strikeout, to record the save. He lowered his ERA to 0.38 in 10 appearances.
Peterson went 4-for-4 in game two and moved into the batting lead in 20-game conference games at .478, just ahead of Kuzniar's .469. Kuzniar (30) and Peterson (29) rank 1-2 in RBI.
St. Thomas has a bye on Friday in the six-team MIAC playoffs and has a 2 p.m. game on Saturday in the semifinals of the single-elimination tourney.