With its postseason fate hanging with every pitch, St. Thomas Baseball had to endure then survive one of the strangest ninth innings you will see Sunday night at the NCAA regional baseball tournament in Collegeville, Minn.
The Tommies first lost a shutout -- then lost a three-run lead -- in the top of the ninth before answering in the bottom of the inning to grind out a 4-3 walk-off win over Chapman.
Redshirt freshman Jake Porter's two-out, two-strike, bases-loaded infield hit to deep short plated pinch runner Michael Fleischhacker and let the Toms finish 1-1 on Sunday. Earlier they lost 10-1 to Pacific (Ore.) in a winners'-bracket game.
Coach Chris Olean's team (32-8) moves on to Monday's finals, where it will have to beat Pacific twice to advance to next week's eight-team College World Series. Game one is set for 11 a.m.
True freshman Kolby Gartner gave the Tommies a gem on the mound in just his second career start. Gartner had only worked 9 1-3 innings in four appearances this season, but on Sunday he looked like a seasoned college veteran. The righthander was one out away from a shutout victory in the ninth with nine strikeouts and just one walk allowed. But two singles and two throwing errors on quirky infield hits let Chapman turn a 3-0 deficit into a 3-3 tie. The Toms needed a running catch on the warning track in left field by Charlie Eldredge to record the third out.
Max Moris' one-out walk put the potential winning run on base. After a strikeout, an infield chopper was misplayed by Chapman to put runners on first and third with two out. Sam Kulesa stole second base, and Avery Lehman worked a long count but was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Porter fell behind in the count but slapped a hard grounder to the right of the shortstop. Kulesa's hustle from second to third took away any chance to get a force out and the Toms were able to celebrate as everybody was safe.
Porter had two hits and two RBI; Kulesa had two hits and one RBI; and Josh Thorp also had a run-scoring hit.
Gartner allowed no earned runs in his nine-inning complete-game victory.
St. Thomas is 18-3 over its last 21 games, including a 6-0 record in games decided by one or two runs. The Purple have scored 43 runs in their six postseason wins -- 29 of them in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.