University of St. Thomas Athletics
Concordia-Moorhead
Stone sharp as Baseball sweeps Cobbers
4/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Junior RHP Brandon Stone struck out 11 and threw a one-hit shutout to lead No. 16-ranked St. Thomas to a 3-0 win over Concordia-Moorhead in Tuesday's first game of an MIAC baseball twinbill at UST. The Tommies won game two 5-2 to complete the sweep.
The Tommies (16-5 overall, 5-1 MIAC) had just 12 hits on the day, including three by Matt McQuillan, but got three RBI from Tom Wippler.
The Toms have won 15 of their last 18 games, including five in a row after a 1-0 loss to Bethel. UST is the first conference baseball team to five wins and trails only 4-0 Gustavus in the race. Bethel (4-2) split a doubleheader with St. Olaf (1-1) with a 1-0 win and a 10-7 loss.
Brady Field's RBI single in the second inning gave the Toms a 1-0 lead. They added two insurance runs in the sixth inning on Wippler's RBI bunt and Dan Leslie's sacrifice fly.
Stone, who pitched just six varsity innings in 2008, improved to 2-1 this season and lowered his ERA to 2.42. He walked one, hit one and had two runners reach on catcher's interference. He led just 1-0 in the sixth when two reached on a one-out hit batsman and a catcher's interference. But Stone got an inninng-ending 6-4-3 double play grounder.
The Cobbers took an early 2-1 lead in the nightcap on a pair of solo home runs by Adam Johnson and Nathan Haase. But UST junior RHP Matt Schuld came on in relief and threw 4 1-3 shutout innings with nine strikeouts, one walk and two hits allowed.
In the third inning, McQuillan's RBI bunt single tied the game and Wippler's two-run double put UST ahead to stay. Brian Schmitz drove in two runs with an RBI ground out in the first and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning.
UST plays a conference twinbill Saturday at St. John's (1 p.m.).
Click here for Game 1 box score:
http://www.tommiesports.com/bsbl/stats/4-7-dh1.htm
Click here for Game 2 box score:
