APPLETON, Wis. -– St. Thomas' impressive 2012 baseball season came to a quiet end Wednesday with a 5-0 loss to Marietta (Ohio) in an elimination game in the NCAA Division III World Series.
The Tommies (41-10) never got on track offensively against Marietta starter Mike Mahaffey, who gave up just four hits and a walk through eight-plus innings. UST stranded five runners in the last two innings and was shutout for the first time in 89 games.
St. Thomas, which was 1-5 this year when it scored two or less runs, finishes third in Division III in its fifth trip to the national tournament. The Tommies were champions in 2001 and 2009 and runners-up in 1999 and 2000. UST's 41 wins were tied for second most in conference history.
Steve Maher (13-2), pitching for the third time in six days, took the loss for St. Thomas. He trailed only 2-0 going into the eighth inning, but the Pioneers scored three runs on four hits to put the game away.
The Pioneers (47-8), the defending champions, avenged a 3-1 loss to the Tommies three days earlier. They advance to play Wheaton (Mass.) in a 2:30 p.m. championship game.
The speedy Tim Saunders went 4-for-4, including three infield hits, and scored the first three MC runs. Three of the Pioneers' five runs came off two-out hits.
Marietta took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Saunders doubled down the line off third baseman Charles Bruchu's glove and came in on Mitch Geers' two-out single to left.
The Pioneers added a run in the third. With two out, Saunders reached on an infield single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single to left.
The Tommies struggled to figure out Mahaffey, who had pitched only one inning in the tournament and came into the game with a 6-2 record and 4.22 ERA. He set down the Tommies with 1-2-3 innings in the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh.
Maher was nearly equally as effective in the first seven innings, when he gave up two runs on eight hits. He struck out six Pioneers, including the side in the sixth, and set the school record for strikeouts in a season with 105. Dick Washburn had the old record of 102 set in his freshman year of 1963.
St. Thomas tried to rally in the eighth, with Ben Podobinski and Dan Reichert opening the inning with singles, but Mahaffey set down the next three batters.
Marietta scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to ice the game.
Jack Hogan led off the Tommies' ninth inning with a double -– their only extra base hit of the day -– and Kyle Lindquist came in to relieve Mahaffey. Charles Bruchu and Podobinski walked to fill the bases, but a strikeout and a flyout ended the game.
Podobinski, a mid-game sub, had a single and two walks in three plate appearances.