DULUTH, Minn. – An early deficit didn't faze the St. Scholastica baseball team as it came back to defeat the Northwestern College Eagles 9-5 to win the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament at Wade Stadium on Friday afternoon.
The win over the Eagles (25-16) voids the potential for a game Saturday in the double elimination tournament and qualifies the Saints for the NCAA Regional for the eighth straight year.
The Eagles came into their second game of the day hot after defeating the Bethany Lutheran Vikings earlier in an elimination game.
The offense for the Eagles started right away in the first when pitcher Zach Markwith helped himself out with an RBI-single for an early Northwestern lead.
The production didn't stop there in the first as Taylor Kouweloa, Andy Peterson, and Josh Hanson all proceeded to knock in a run to give the Eagles a 4-0 cushion after a half inning of play.
The Saints began to climb back right away in the bottom of the first when Kyle Moody knocked in a run with one of his two sacrifice flies during the game to make it 4-1 after one.
The scoring subsided for a while until the third inning when St. Scholastica really opened it up. Parker Olson started the rally with an RBI double to score Andy Schwantes. Kyle Flagstad followed with an RBI single of his own for the second run of the inning. CSS pushed across one more in the inning and tied things up at four a piece.
Moody recorded his second sacrifice fly of the game in the fifth to extend the CSS lead to one at 5-4.
The sixth inning brought more runs for the Saints when John Hietpas knocked in Tom Juberian with a single followed by another double for Olson that brought in an additional two runs and the Saints took a commanding 8-4 lead.
After the Saints scored another in the eighth they called on Zack Farmer to close out the game. Farmer went on to allow just one run on a wild pitch as the Saints held on for the 9-5 victory and the UMAC Tournament title.
Kyle Jensen returned from surgery and earned the victory going six strong and allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking just two.
Olson was just one of two Saints with multiple hits on the day going 3-5 with two doubles, three RBIs and one run scored. Jesse Heaton was the other Saint with more than one hit going 2-5 and scoring twice.
The Saints (33-9) will now await their national tournament fate which will be announced on Sunday night. CSS will most likely travel to Whitewater to play in the Midwest Regional. Stay tuned to csssaints.com for all the latest updates on the NCAA Tournament bound St. Scholastica baseball team.