St. Thomas senior pitchers Andrew Tri and Graham Laubscher combined to allow just one earned run with 25 strikeouts over 16 innings to lead the host Tommies' 5-1, 2-1 baseball sweep of St. John's Saturday at Koch Diamond.
The Tommies (12-3 overall, 7-0 MIAC) have won nine in a row since losing a pair of 3-2 decision to St. John's March 24 in U.S. Bank Stadium. Saturday's sweep ended a seven-game losing streak to the Johnnies, including five consecutive one-run defeats.
The teams play a nine-inning game Sunday in Collegeville to close out the three-game conference series.
Sunday will mark the final regular-season game between the archrivals in a baseball rivalry that began in 1907, as St. Thomas is moving to Division I and the Summit League starting with the 2022 season.
The Toms never trailed on the day, but needed every run they could muster on an afternoon when both teams' pitchers shined. The two runs for the Purple in game two scored on an error and a passed ball. Both Tri (seven innings) and Laubscher (nine innings) and SJU's Casey Trapp (eight innings) in game two had complete-game performances.
In game one, freshman Owen Best's bases-loaded sinking line drive skipped under and past the diving SJU left fielder in the bottom of the sixth inning to plate three runs and extend the St. Thomas lead to 4-0. The Purple added a sacrifice fly for a 5-0 advantage. Best and Josh Thorp each had two hits in an eight-hit Tommie attack.
Ethan Roe had three hits on the day for SJU (11-6, 1-5).
Tri had lost two previous decisions to the Johnnies, including a 1-0 home loss in 2019. Laubscher had lost a complete-game decision to SJU in the 2018 MIAC playoffs.
In six starts over the last two seasons, Tri is 5-0 with a 0.89 ERA and 52 strikeouts with eight walks over 40.1 innings in those contests.
Laubscher moved his career record to 9-9 and lowered his career ERA to 2.85 with 161 strikeouts in 129.1 innings.
St. Thomas pitching ranks in the top two in Division III in ERA (1.16) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.5).