May 3, 2023

St. John's (Minn.) clinches MIAC berth

More news about: St. John-s | St. Olaf
Kenyon College braved some bad weather, but not even a cold, wet day could rain on the Owls parade as they took two, 9-8 and 4-3, in a twin bill against the Hiram College Terriers. It was Kenyon's final home outing this season, and the Owls remain firmly in the North Coast Athletic Conference postseason hunt with a pair of important victories.
Kenyon athletics photo


Saint John's clinched its 13th-consecutive appearance in the MIAC Tournament and 15th since the format started in 2003 with another doubleheader sweep, 7-2 and 10-3, over St. Olaf on Wednesday, May 3, at Haugen Field at Becker Park. The Johnnies (22-13, 13-5 MIAC) batted .387 (24-for-62) with four home runs, two triples and two doubles on the day, while seven pitchers combined to allow three earned runs in 16 innings, aided by five double plays. Junior right fielder Rodney Erickson went 7-for-7 on the day from the No. 9 spot in the lineup. His solo home run to start the bottom of the sixth in game one gave SJU a 7-1 lead and enabled him to become the 38th Johnnie in program history (fourth this season) to reach 100 career hits. A pair of seniors, second baseman Owen Dauk and pitcher Jack Haring, tied SJU season records in the doubleheader. Dauk crossed the plate four times to tie the Johnnies' season record for runs scored – 44 – set by Cole Weaver in 2016 and Haring made his 19th relief appearance in game one, which tied the school record held by Case Paxton '09 (2007), Hayden Zimmerman '12 (2010) and Joey Long '13 (2012).

Maryville overcame an early 6-0 deficit Wednesday night to defeat Berea 13-10 and move on to the double-elimination portion of the CCS Baseball Tournament. After a hard-fought game that saw the Scots claw back during their final at-bat not once, but twice, Ashton Whiteaker called game in the bottom of the 11th inning, hitting a walk-off no-doubt three-run home run to seal the Mountaineers fate. The ninth-inning hero was Hubbell, who launched a one-out solo shot to tie the contest at nine runs apiece and send the Scots into extra innings. The blast was Hubbell's second of the season. Hubbell led the Scots with three hits in the game while Whiteaker contributed a team-high four RBI, going 2-for-6 with the home run.

Avenging a 6-5 walk-off loss on Saturday to second-ranked Salisbury, nationally-ranked Christopher Newport rebounded with a dominant 8-2 win against the Sea Gulls (28-5) on Wednesday afternoon. The Captains improved to 31-8 behind a sparkling pitching performance by senior Dylan Weber and a pair of mammoth home runs from seniors Justin Bowers and Alec Reilly. The latter came with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, punctuating the overall effort with an formidable blow that sailed well over the scoreboard in right field. The grand slam was his sixth home run of the season and 12th of his career, capping a career-high 6 RBI performance with the colossal crack.

No. 5 nationally ranked Endicott defeated No. 23 Tufts, 14-1, in non-conference action on Wednesday evening at Sol Gittleman Park. Robbie Władkowski homered and knocked in three runs to highlight the Gulls' offense which compiled 18 hits on the day. John Mulready also blasted a two-run homer in the fourth, while Danny MacDougall had a solo shot in the second. On the bump, Gottesman was sharp as the junior lefty recorded the longest outing of his collegiate career. Gottesman also retired the first 10 batters he faced to start the contest. Endicott is 6-1 all-time against Tufts. The Gulls have won six in a row in the series, with the last two contests featuring Tufts at No. 23 in the national rankings.

St. Scholastica split a pair of baseball games today, hosting the Auggies from Augsburg at Wade Stadium. The Auggies got the best of the Saints in game one - 5-4, but CSS responded with a big offensive performance, and a complete game pitching performance, to defeat Augsburg in game two by a score of 7-4. Both teams struggled early to get any offense going in the opener and in the top of the fourth inning, the Auggies offense, who at that point had been held to just one hit, was able to score three runs in the inning, taking a 3-0 lead. Later Mitchell Novak hit a 2-RBI single to tie the game at 3-3. The Auggies responded in the top of the next inning with an RBI double and single, to take a 5-3 lead over the Saints.Despite a late inning run, the Saints fell just short as Augsburg defeated CSS in game one by a score of 5-4. It was a differnt sory in the nightcap as CSS took the early lead and responded with runs whenever Augsburg put up a talley themselves.

St. Norbert College continued its busy week of with a split of a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader against Edgewood, winning the opener 9-8 before dropping the nightcap 6-3 at Van Alstine Field at Mel Nicks Sports Complex. The Green Knights banged out 17 hits in the opener and took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning. Edgewood scored twice in the fifth to go ahead 5-4, but a Caden Uhlenbrauck RBI single in the bottom of the inning tied it at 5-5. St. Norbert got three runs in the bottom of the inning and a valuable insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, as Edgewood got a two-run home run in the eighth to cut the deficit to one run to end the scoring. In the nightcap, Edgewood took a 4-0 lead with a run in the second, two runs in the third and one run in the sixth. The Green Knights got two runs in the sixth on an RBI single from Uhlenbrauck and an RBI groundout from Carson Krumrei. Sebastien Dubois had a sacrifice fly in the seventh to get St. Norbert within 4-3, but Edgewood got two runs on a two-out double in the ninth to salt away the win.

Gustavus hit four home runs in a decisive 17-6 win over Crown on Wednesday afternoon. The Gusties improve to 25-11 overall and remain undefeated at home this season at 14-0, where they have outscored opponents 150-45. Crown made it a 9-6 game in the eighth, scoring on an RBI single and an error, but the Gusties kicked the door down in the bottom half with eight runs on four hits, including a grand slam by Chris Knowles and a mercy rule walk-off homer by Mitch Casperson. The Gusties used five pitchers in the win. Nick Hentges was perfect the first time through the lineup before allowing two runs in the fourth. Tanner Hopkins earned his second win of the season with a hitless sixth inning.

Senior righty Nathan Furino allowed two runs over five innings and No. 13 Eastern Connecticut State University broke open a tight game by scoring five runs in the bottom of the eighth in a 9-2 Little East Conference victory over Keene State College Wednesday evening at the Eastern Baseball Stadium. Eastern (28-9, 11-3 LEC) left 14 runners on base but pushed across enough runs to send Keene (13-23, 3-11 LEC) to its 12th consecutive loss. Ranked fifth in New England, Eastern had lost four of its last six heading into the contest but improved to 14-4 at home this year in completing a season sweep of Keene that gave the Warriors seven straight victories over the Owls.

UW-Stout split a doubleheader with the UW-Eau Claire
Blugolds Wednesday afternoon at Carson Park. Stout fell
7-4 in game one and won game two 18-10.
UW-Stout athletics photo by Chico LaBarbera

In a contest that spanned two states and two weeks to complete, John Jay earned a 10-5 triumph on Wednesday to split the doubleheader with Lehman. Today's game resumed at 4:00 p.m. at The APEX South Field, home of the Lightning, as the Bloodhounds were the home team for the contest. John Spallin finished the game going 2 for 2 with two walks and drove in three RBIs for the Bloodhounds. Ryan Kilcarr finished with two RBIs while Michael Mauro, Anthony Agosta, and Ethan Simaan also added an RBI in the victory for the Bloodhounds. Mauro, who started the contest, earned his first win of the season, throwing six innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on seven hits while striking out three despite walking eight. Marc Weeks earned his first save of the season, throwing a scoreless seventh with a strikeout. Nomar Rijo led the way for Lehman with two hits while adding an RBI. Ranssel Pinedo went 1 for 2 with two RBIs to pace the Lightning at the plate. Ryan Rosa, and Frederick de la Rosa each added an RBI for the visitors.

Hosting for the final time in the regular season, Gordon welcomed the Suffolk Rams to J. Tec White Field for a nine inning battle where the Fighting Scots secured the 6-3 victory. Suffolk was able to tie up the game in the fourth and grab a 2-1 lead in the fifth to make it 2-1. Gordon tied it up in the third and took the lead for good in the fifth. Gordon capitalized in the eighth, using a pair of walks and two Suffolk infield errors to load the bases for senior S. Demers with two down. The senior laced a single down the right field line scoring two more runs, doubling up the Rams, 6-3 heading into their final at bats. After three innings of work from the mound, Gianni Mercurio allowed just one hit and struck out four before S. Demers came in to finish it off. Demers closed it out to give Gordon the 6-3 win.

Concordia Wisconsin took a break from NACC play, hosted the Carthage Firebirds on Wednesday and earned the decisive 12-4 win, improving their overall record to 20-13 on the year. Luke Bruckner retired nine straight Firebird batters in the third, fourth, and fifth inning, holding Carthage scoreless through five innings. Bruckner would finish his day with five scoreless innings pitched, facing 17 batters, with five strikeouts on 49 total pitches. At the top of the ninth, the Falcons were able to close the door on the Firebirds as Blake Breon got the first two outs courtesy of a 4-6-3 double play before senior Andrew Javoroski recorded the final out of the game with a groundout back to the mound, completing the 12-4 win.

North Central (Minn.) hosted senior night against the Martin Luther College Knights. NCU celebrated the careers of seniors Kyle Huerth and Tanner Oka. The Blue and Gold would end up winning by mercy rule in the eighth inning. With the game tied 11-11, the Rams outscored MLC 11-1 to win the game 22-12. Kyle Huerth went 2-5 with a triple and the walk off hit. He had three RBIs. Tanner Oka got the win on the mound and only gave up three hits. Daniel Montana went 4-4 with four RBIs. Julian Encinas went 2-4 with a grand slam and a double, tallying four RBIs. Christian Rodriguez went 3-5 with three RBIs.