2012 Tommie Baseball 34-Game Notes: May 1

May 01, 2012

St. Thomas Baseball Notes - Tuesday, May 1, 2012

--UP NEXT: St. Thomas plays at Division I Minnesota at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in a nine-inning game. It's the final game to be held at the U of M's Siebert Field.

You can listen to a live audio webcast of the game here: www.mnsportsnetwork.com

--GOPHER TALK: The Minnesota-St. Thomas baseball series has been one-sided over the years, although recent Tommie teams have competed well. The Toms scored an 8-3 win over the Gophers in April 2011 at Siebert; couldn't hold a ninth-inning lead and lost 5-4 in 12 innings to the U of M in the Metrodome in March 2010; and edged the Gophers 6-3 in April 2009 at Siebert... St. Thomas had lost 16 in a row to the Gophers from 1988-2008, including one-run losses in 1996 and 1999. In fact, before UST's 2009 win, MIAC teams had lost nearly 50 in a row to Minnesota since 1987 when the Toms and Augsburg each split doubleheaders with the Gophers.

--LAST SEASON: Charles Bruchu had four hits and J.D. Dorgan had three as the Tommies scored an 8-3 win. John Licht threw four shutout innings to close out the victory.

--BUSY WEEK: The Tommies (30-4 overall, 18-0) are playing their fifth game in three days. They swept Bethel Sunday 4-3 and 2-0 at home; then traveled four hours Monday to Moorhead and swept Concordia College 9-5 and 16-2. The Toms used their top three pitchers for at least five innings in those games - Steve Maher (10-0, 1.61 ERA); Dylan Thomas (5-2, 2.82 ERA); and Bryce Gapinski (6-0, 2.14 ERA).

--HE'S BACK: Freshman CF Ben Podobinski has stepped in and ably replaced a four-year starter in Matt McQuillan. Podobinski, a native of Roseville, was in the U of M Gopher program briefly as a walk-on in 2010-11. For the Tommies, he's batting .395 with 45 hits, 34 runs and 16 steals in 33 games as leadoff hitter.

--WHO'S HOT: Dylan Thomas, a junior transfer from Des Moines Area Community College, went 4-0 with a save in April on the mound and also and took over the DH role. In UST's 18-0 conference run, Thomas is hitting .488 with 21 hits and 16 RBI and a current seven-game hitting streak... UST hit just three home runs in its first 28 games but has seven in its last six games... Charles Bruchu has reached base in 11 of his last 12 games and has no errors in his last 50 chances at third base... Tim Kuzniar has a six-game hitting streak... Steve Maher, a sophomore juco transfer from Iowa Central, became UST's first pitcher to reach 10 season wins during April.

--POLL TALK: In this week's Division III polls released today, the Tommies were ranked No. 2 by both D3Baseball.com and the ABCA. They were unranked in first D3baseball poll of season after 28-18 finish in 2011 and have climbed from No. 25 to 23 to 19 to 13 to 7 to 5 to 3 and to 2 last week. They received seven first-place votes in the D3Baseball poll and one in the ABCA poll. UST has climbed in the ABCA poll from No. 13 to 10 to 8 to 7 to 4 and now this week to No. 2.

ABCA poll: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/pdf/main/athletics/abcapoll_050112.pdf

--STREAK: The Toms have won a school-record 21 games in row since 7-4 loss to ranked Ramapo (N.J.) on their March spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla. The previous record was 18 in a row back in 1997.

--HOT AT HOME: Toms have won 26 in a row on campus since a May 1, 2010 loss to Concordia Cobbers in game two of doubleheader

--CONFERENCE TALK: The Toms swept their last six MIAC twinbills of 2011 and have swept their first nine of 2012 for a 30-game regular-season win streak in the conference... They secured the outright MIAC title on Sunday. St. Thomas has won or shared 10 consecutive MIAC championships. It's the fourth longest active MIAC team title streak after St. Thomas men's indoor track and field (28 in row); Gustavus men's tennis (24 in row); UST women's indoor track and field (13 in row).

--DID YOU KNOW: St. Thomas can become the first team to complete a 20-0 regular-season MIAC baseball record if it can sweep Gustavus on Saturday. The Tommies had 19-1 finishers in 1996 and 1999. The MIAC expanded to a 20-game schedule in 1984.

--VETERAN: St. Thomas senior DH Nick Reichert is the MIAC's oldest player at age 27. He's a 2003 graduate of Minneapolis Southwest High, where he was All-City in four sports (football, soccer, hockey and baseball). Nick played two seasons of hockey for St. Thomas and was a member of UST's 2005 national runner-up team. He scored two goals that season. He took a break from school but came back to campus last year and has been a key contributor to some wins in 2011 and 2012.

--DEFENSE: The Toms are tops nationally among 365 Division III programs with .979 field % -- only seven of their 23 errors have come from their infielders (1B, 2B, SS, 3B). UST turned five double plays in Sunday's 4-3, 2-0 sweep of Bethel.

--STRIKES: UST baseball has a near 4-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio and leads D-III in fewest walks per nine innings

--25 CLUB: Senior lefty Bryce Gapinski made his 40th career start and threw five shutout innings Monday at Concordia and improved to 25-5 on his career. Gapinski and senior RHP John Licht were key contributors to UST's 2009 NCAA championship team (Gapinski started title game vs. Wooster and allowed two runs in five innings, UST won 3-2 in 12 innings)

Most Career Wins, All Games, MIAC Pitchers (through May 1, 2012)

30, Matt Schuld, St. Thomas (2007-10) (30-5 W-L)

28, James Murrey, Macalester (2007-10) (28-14 W-L)

27, Todd Mathison, St. Olaf (2006-09) (27-7 W-L)

27, Charlie Ruud, St. Olaf (2001-05) (27-? W-L)

27, John Nielson, Carleton (1988-91) (27-14 W-L)

27, Joe Meyer, St. Thomas (1984-87) *27-14 W-L)

26, Brian Krause, St. Thomas (2002-05) (26-14 W-L)

25, Bryce Gapinski, St. Thomas (2009-present**) (25-5 W-L)

24, Bryan Edstrom, St. Thomas (1999-2002) (24-1 W-L)

24, Josh Roiger, Hamline (2005-08) (24-9 W-L)

24, John Phyle, Augsburg (1984-87) (24-13 W-L)

--CLOSE CALLS: The Toms are 14-1 this season in games decided by one or two runs or in extra innings after going 7-12 in such games in 2011

--RALLY GUYS: The Toms have eight comeback wins in 2012

--PLAYOFF BOUND: The Toms are in MIAC playoffs for 13th time in 13-year history of the format and appear to be in good shape to make the NCAA playoffs as at least an at-large qualifier for the 17th time in 18 seasons.

--TRADITION: St. Thomas has been among Division III's elite baseball programs over the last 18 seasons. The Tommies were NCAA runners-up in 1999 and 2000; and won NCAA championships in 2001 and 2009. They have won 30 or more games in 15 of the last 17 seasons.

--COACH: Chris Olean played four seasons for Coach Dennis Denning (1996-1999), was a nine-year assistant to Denning and has been head coach the last three seasons. His three-year record is 93-31 (.750).

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Team Stats

Dylan Thomas

Charles Bruchu

Ben Podobinski

Tim Kuzniar

University of St. Thomas Athletics