Sophomore T.J. Constertina retired six of the seven batters he faced for a save and freshman Jake Porter's RBI single in the eighth inning plated the go-ahead run as St. Thomas Baseball scored a 5-4 win over host Gustavus for a split of Wednesday's key MIAC doubleheader in St. Peter.

The Gusties (15-2) won game one, 3-1, using three unearned runs.

The teams are tied at 10-2 in the MIAC race, 2.5 games ahead of third-place Bethel (9-5), which lost a pair to St. John's.

St. Thomas (15-5) made the most of 11 hits on the day. Four freshmen had two-hit games at the plate for the Purple: Owen Best had a single and an RBI double in game one, while Max Moris, Sam Kulesa and Porter each had two hits in the nightcap.

Pitching for the first time in 12 days, neither of the Tommie starters Andrew Tri and Graham Laubscher were able to continue personal win streaks. Tri came into today 5-0 in his last six starts dating back to last season. He worked five innings and struck out four with four walks and no earned runs and took the loss in the opener. Laubscher allowed four runs, two walks and seven hits with seven strikeouts over six innings and settled for a no decision.

Freshman reliever Tyson Stritesky allowed two singles but stranded both runners in his seventh inning. After the Toms scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth. Stritesky allowed a leadoff single to start the Gusties' eighth inning and gave way to Constertina, who retired the next three batters.

Constertina struck out three of the four he faced in the ninth to secure the team victory, and he stranded a runner at second base in the process.

St. Thomas is scheduled to play its next five games at home starting with one nine-inning game Saturday at home against Crown.