University of St. Thomas Athletics
8-5, 0-1
Saint Mary's
13-3, 1-0
Baseball splits conference opener with Cardinals
3/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Junior right hander Steph Scatassa threw a four-hit shutout with six strikeouts and no walks to lead St. Mary's to a 3-0 game-one victory over St. Thomas in MIAC baseball play Monday at Koch Diamond.
That ended UST's 54-game home field win streak, which was the second longest active home victory streak in Division III men's sports behind only Mount Union football (85 in a row). St. Thomas' last previous home loss was May 1, 2010 in game two against Concordia-Moorhead, 5-1.
Ryan Gerber homered twice as the No. 4-ranked Tommies won game two, 13-4. Pitchers Eric Veglahn (10) and Bill Ferderer (seven) combined record 17 strikeouts in the nightcap with just two walks. The 17 Ks are the most by a UST pitching staff in one game in 45 years, since Steve Samuelson fanned 19 in a 1970 game. Veglahn improved to 15-0 on his career.
Gerber, a fifth-year senior who missed 2014 with an injury, has six home runs among his 16 hits and 20 RBI over his last 11 games. He went 3-for-4 in game two and 5-for-7 on the day.
St. Mary's (13-4 overall, 1-1 MIAC) scored all three runs in the fifth inning of game one on three walks, an error and a two-out single. Dominic Reed worked 4 2-3 innings and allowed just one earned run but took the loss.
The Tommies (9-5, 1-1) fell behind 2-0 in game two but took the lead at 3-2 on Dan Ziemann's two-run double in the third inning. It was 4-2 in the fourth inning when Gerber greeted a relief pitcher with a three-run blast to left. Three batters later, freshman Zach Gottfredsen launched a three-run home to push the lead to 10-2. Freshman Hunter Hart hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, his third on the season, to extend the lead to nine runs.
St. Thomas plays two game Wednesday at Macalester (2:30 p.m.).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Scatassa (2-0)
L: Reed, Dominic (0-2)
Batting:
2B: Lursen 1
RBI: Barry 1 ; Buerkle 1 ; Schlemmer 1
Base Running:
RUNS: W. Doll 1 ; Pieczynski 1 ; Frost 1
HBP: Buerkle 1
Base Running:
SB: Hart, Hunter 1
