No. 6-ranked St. Thomas struck for seven runs in its first at-bat and cruised to an early 11-0 lead in an eventual 11-5 defeat of Buena Vista (Iowa) in Friday night's winners' bracket game at the NCAA Division III baseball playoffs in Moline, Ill.

Sophomore DH Waylon Bemboom had three hits and three RBI. Each Tommie starter had at least one hit and the Toms also stranded nine runners. Nick Degen scored three times and joined Ben Podobinski and Kelvin Stroik with two hits apiece. UST has pounded 125 hits in its current 10-game winning streak.

Tommie starting pitching continued to shine. Eric Vehlahn allowed one earned run, five hits and two walks and struck out 10 in seven innings. He improved to 8-0 on the season and lowered his earned-run average to 1.78. He left with an 11-2 lead. In the Toms' 10-0 record in May, their starting pitchers have a combined 1.53 ERA.

Buena Vista (37-8) left the bases loaded in the third, eighth and ninth innings.Three Tommie releivers issued six walks and three singles in the last two innings.

Second-seed UST (35-7), winner of 10 in a row, plays sixth-seed DePauw (25-19) on Saturday at noon in a battle of 2-0 teams. DePauw has two one-run wins this week in the regional.