Tommie Baseball blended strong starting pitching with some clutch late-day at-bats to pull out Saturday's 6-1, 9-3 road sweep at Concordia-Moorhead.
The Purple (22-5 overall, 16-2 MIAC) have won 19 of their last 21 games. They never trailed on the day, had 26 hits over 16 innings, and saw two young starters allow just two runs over 12 innings. Coach Chris Olean's Tommies have a Division III-best 1.45 ERA over 27 games.
The Toms kept their slight lead on second-place Gustavus into the final day of the conference regular-season race. They take an eight-game winning streak into Sunday's nine-inning rematch with the Cobbers, this one on Senior Day at St. Thomas' Koch Diamond.
A Tommie victory -- or a Gustie loss in Sunday's nine-inning game with St. Mary's -- will give St. Thomas the MIAC crown in its final season in the league and last year in Division III. It also would secure the top-seed and first-round bye next weekend for the start of the 11-team league playoffs.
In game two, Concordia (15-15, 9-11) forged a 3-3 tie with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning. St. Thomas redshirt freshman Jeremy Klick came on in relief and eventually and got a bases-loaded strikeout to end that threat and keep the score deadlocked.
After a scoreless eighth inning, the Toms had two quick outs to start the top of the ninth. But Matthew Enck and Sam Kulesa singled, and four teammates followed with run-scoring singles to build the lead to six runs. Avery Lehman, Jake Porter, Josh Thorp and freshman Max Moris each had an RBI hit.
Kulesa, a redshirt freshman, went 6-for-8 on the day and raised his season average to .421. Over both games, Lehman and Moris each had four hits, and Porter and Thorp each had three.
In the opener, redshirt freshman Duke Coburn (4-0) allowed just one run, three hits and no walks with three strikeouts. Coburn has won his last four starts and is 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA over 36 innings this season.
Redshirt freshman Tyson Stritesky worked five innings to start game two and allowed one run, one hit and three walks and left with a 3-1 lead. Freshman Jack Blesch got the next five walks but allowed two runs. Klick got the final seven outs for the victory, aided by his team's two-out explosion in the top of the ninth inning.