The Hamline baseball team finished a long homestand with a bang. The bang came in the form of Zach Langton's two RBI home run that pulled the Pipers ahead of St. Thomas en route to a 6-3 triumph and a split of a doubleheader with their neighbor at CHS Field Sunday.
Devin Rodgers had three hits with Langton and Nolan Schoonveld two each for the HU offensive surge, which totaled 10 hits in the game.
The Tommies won the first game, 11-5.
Langton's homer, a high arching shot to right field, was just the third round tripper of the season for HU, who rode Evan Bayer's nine hit complete game to the win.
St. Thomas score a solo run in the third and two in the fourth for a 3-0 lead. In the fifth, Elliott Engen was hit by a pitch to start the inning. One out later, Schoonveld singled. Jake Dumovic's double scored Engen and Schoonveld came in on Cullen Buck's RBI grounder. Langton then gave HU the lead with his shot to right. In the eighth, Hamline combined a single, an error on a pickoff attempt, an Engen RBI double, a walk, a hit batter and a balk for two runs to seal the deal.
Bayer handled it from there, walking one and striking out four for his fourth complete game of the season, his second nine inning effort. The senior righty leads the league in Innings Pitched (60.1), is second in starts (8) and tied for third in complete games.
In the opener, UST scored four second inning runs and five in the sixth to take command. Hamline had a seventh inning flurry with Tyler Brick's two RBI single highlighting a four run frame.
Hamline is now 15-19 overall, 6-10 in MIAC games. The scheduled Monday game with Wis-Stout has been canceled. So, HU will play their final five game away from CHS, starting with a doubleheader Wednesday. May 1 at Carleton (2:30 p.m.). HU travels to Collegeville on Saturday, May 4 to take on St. John's (1:00 p.m.) and wraps up the 2019 season the next afternoon at Bethany Lutheran in a single, nine-inning game.