In Saturday play at the NCAA Baseball regional in Collegeville, Minn., top-seed St. Thomas built leads of 3-0, 7-3 and 8-6 but had to sweat out an 8-7 defeat of York to move to 2-0 in the tourney.

Redshirt freshman OF Charlie Eldredge, in his first varsity start, had two solo homers, a double and a sacrifice and scored three runs. Eldredge came into Saturday 2-for-5 on the season at the plate but went 3-for-3. Two other redshirt freshmen -- Sam Kulesa and Jake Porter -- also homered for the Toms in the first inning, and Porter had a three-hit day. St. Thomas had just seven home runs in its first 37 games but stroked four today.

Redshirt freshman starter Duke Coburn pitched into the eighth inning for the win, allowing three earned runs with eight strikeouts with only one walk. T.J. Constertina got the final two outs for a save with the tying and winning runs on first and second base.

York, which left nine on base, lost two one-run decisions in as many days to exit the tourney. The Pennsylvania team had 12 hits and scored three runs in the eighth inning to pull within 7-6. St. Thomas ended the threat as infielder Max Moris took a relay throw from center field and gunned down a York runner trying to advance to second on his two-run single.

The Toms added a key insurance run in the top of the ninth inning as Avery Lehman singled, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Charlie Bartholomew's RBI ground-out chopper.

The Purple move on to play Sunday in the winners' bracket against Pacific (Ore.), a 4-3 winner over Texas-Dallas.