University of St. Thomas Athletics
Emory
Baseball strands 13, falls 10-7 in season finale
5/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By DOUG HENNES
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - St. Thomas stranded 13 runners and had its bid to play for another NCAA Division III baseball championship end Monday with a 10-7 loss to Emory (Ga.).
The Tommies led early at 3-0 and 4-2 but stranded runners in scoring position in eight of their nine innings. Emory tied the game at 4-4 in the fourth, went up by a run in the sixth and sent 11 batters to the plate in the seventh, scoring five runs to take control.
St. Thomas (39-9) finishes in third place nationally among 350 Division III baseball teams for the second time in three seasons. This is UST's sixth top-three national finish in 16 seasons.
With the win, Emory (38-12) advances to play UW-Whitewater at 11 a.m. Tuesday and will need to defeat the Warhawks twice to claim the championship. Emory started Monday with a 15-3 defeat of Southern Maine and has four elimination victories over the last three days.
Monday's loss also ended the careers of 15 St. Thomas seniors, including four-year starters J.D. Dorgan and Tim Kuzniar. They compiled a 142-44 record, won four MIAC regular-season titles and two conference playoff crowns, and advanced to NCAA regional playoffs all four years.
"The loss hurts, but what I focus on is our overall success," Coach Chris Olean said. "We won the conference all four years and got to the World Series twice, and doing so this year without one of our best players (injured All-American first baseman Tyler Peterson) is remarkable."
Three-year starter Ben Podobinski had three hits and a walk and reached base five times on Monday. He became the 12th MIAC player to reach 200 career hits. He also tied Jake Mauer's 2001 record for hits in a season with 83 and shattered the UST season record for runs by nine with 68.
Podobinski (nine hits) and Dorgan (eight) led the Tommies in the World Series and finished with 202 and 205 career hits, respectively.
Tommies lead early
St. Thomas jumped on Emory starter Ben Hinojosa in the first inning for three unearned runs. Hinojosa bungled a game-opening dribbler from Podobinski, retired the next two batters, but gave up four straight singles, including a two-RBI shot by Kelvin Stroik.
Emory got back two runs in the second on a triple and single before loading the bases on two Caleb Fernholz walks. The next hitter beat out a bases-loaded grounder to second to make the score 3-2, but Fernholz induced a fly ball to strand three runners.
Podobinski opened the second with the 200th hit of his St. Thomas career and came around to score on a Jack Hogan single for a 4-2 lead.
Emory chased Fernholz after opening the fourth with a double. Fellow freshman Bill Ferderer came on in relief and the Eagles tied the game at 4-4 on a sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout.
The Eagles took their first lead, 5-4, in the top of the sixth on a two-out single, and extended it to 10-4 with five runs in the seventh off Ferderer and reliever Jacob Nelson on three singles, two doubles and three errors. The outburst was similar to the six runs that UW-Whitewater scored in the eighth inning Sunday when leading the St. Thomas 4-3.
The Tommies didn't give up. They loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh and scored twice on a double play and an error to cut the Emory lead to 10-6. They picked up their final run in the eighth and put two runners on base with two outs in the ninth, but a groundout ended the game.
"Two-out hitting obviously is the key to postseason baseball," Olean said, "and we just couldn't push across enough runs today. We left too many guys on base but we never stopped trying, and I'm proud of that."
Click here for box score:
http://www.ncaa.com/game/baseball/d3/2014/05/26/emory-st-thomas-mn
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MIAC Baseball Career Hits Leaders
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243, Jake Mauer, St. Thomas (1998-2001) 187 games
235, Brian Sprout, St. Olaf (1999-2002) 158 games
228, Tony Konicek, Gustavus (2004-2007) 148 games
225, Tim Kuzniar, St. Thomas (2011-2014), 179 games
210, Brad Mazer, Gustavus (1999-2002) 145 games
210, Carson Jones, St. Olaf (2007-2010) 157 games
208, Steve Pignato, St. Thomas (1994-1997) 159 games
205, J.D. Dorgan, St. Thomas (2011-2014), 178 games
202, Ben Podobinski, St. Thomas (2011-2014), 133 games
201, Tom Carroll, St. Thomas (2000-2003) 154 games
201, Joel Brettingen, Macalester (2001-2004) 144 games
200, Brett Olson, St. Thomas (2002-2005) 168 games
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Others:
196, Tom Wippler, St. Thomas (2007-2010), 176 games
196, Kirby Carr, Bethel (2004-07), 153 games
