St. John's was on its game for the second day in a row as it won its second MIAC baseball playoff crown. SJU never trailed on the day in 9-6 and 5-1 wins over St. Thomas in the championship round of the conference playoffs in Minnetonka.
The Johnnies (26-14) capped a 4-0 run through the losers' bracket – just the second team to lose its opener and win the title in the 16-year history of the MIAC event.
They will advance to the NCAA playoffs, and will learn their pairings later Sunday night.
After making the NCAA playoff field in 19 of the last 20 seasons, St. Thomas (24-16-1) appear to have slim at-large hopes when the field in revealed later tonight.
St. John's got excellent pitching on the day. In game one, starter Joe Stanton pitched into the ninth inning and allowed five earned runs, six hits and four walks and struck out five. In game two, starter Patrick Strey worked 7 1-3 innings and gave up just an unearned run. Freshman Ben Etzell got an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to close the eighth, and retired the Toms 1-2-3 in the ninth to secure the victory.
In the first game, the Johnnies collected 15 hits, including three-run home runs by Tom Druk and Gabe MacDonald.
In the pivotal game two, MacDonald hit a solo home run in the fourth inning on a day when he extended his hitting streak to 25 and 26 games. The Johnnies added two runs in the fifth on a walk, Derek Schiebel's RBI triple, and a bases-loaded hit by pitch.
The Toms climbed within 3-1 on Waylon Bemboom's two-out RBI single in the seventh inning. Freshman Jimmy Dolan had three hits on the game for UST, which hit into two double plays and stranded six.
UST starter Ty Feyereisen allowed just the solo home run in four innings but took the loss as he left after four innings trailing 1-0.
Kurt Jantscher, who saved the first game by recording the final three outs, hit a two-run single in the top of the ninth to give St. John's a four-run cushion. The Johnnies had seven hits but took advantage of six walks and four hit-by-pitch.
SJU closed with 72 hits and 40 runs in 47 innings through five games this weekend.