Sat. Wrap: Softball sweeps, M. Tennis wins

PHOTO: Morgan Murphy's walk-off homer won game one.

John Tschida celebrated his 999th and 1000th games as a college softball head coach with Saturday's 5-2, 5-0 home sweep of Bethel.

The No. 16-ranked Tommies (33-5 overall, 20-2 MIAC) secured the outright MIAC title for the 13th time in 16 seasons and is the top-seed and host for the May 6-8 conference playoffs.

Tschida has the best winning percentage among all Division III coaches at .846 (846-154), including six years at St. Mary's and 16 at St. Thomas.

Morgan Murphy celebrated Senior Day with a three-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning to close game one.

Senior Katie Jo Delisle threw a two-hit shutout in game two, and Micaela Trainor had a two-run homer in game two and had a five-hit day. UST had 26 hits on the day but needed a two-out throwing error in game one in the seventh inning to tie the game at 1-1.

St. Thomas is home Sunday to face UW-Oshkosh for two games.

The Tommies will be the host school for the four-team, double-elimination MIAC Playoffs. Friday's games are at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., with pairings still to be determined. Three Saturday games will be played at 11 a.m., 1:30 and 4 p.m. Sunday's championship is set for 11 a.m., with a 1:30 game if needed.

Women's Tennis

St. Thomas will share the MIAC championship in Women's Tennis, thanks to Carleton's 7-2 win over Gustavus on Saturday. The Gusties can make it a three-way tie with a win Sunday vs. Macalester.

UST (15-2 overall, 9-1 MIAC) lost 8-1 to Gustavus two weeks ago but beat Carleton last weekend, 5-4.

This is the first MIAC regular-season title for Tommie Women's Tennis since 1991. The Tommies captured the 2015 MIAC playoff crown.

Women's Golf

St. Thomas is tied for first place with Gustavus out of 11 teams at the halfway point of the Carleton Invitationl in Hastings. The final 18 holes are set for Sunday. Just five strokes separate the first five teams.

The Tommies and Gusties are at 324, followed by St. Catherine (325), Carleton (326) and Wartburg (Iowa) (329) in spots 3-4-5.

Rache Morris is in second among 60 players after posting a 78. Other UST's varsity scorers were Emily Thul (80), Marja Sorensen (81), Erin Dingmann (85) and Morgan McCorkle (86)

Men's Tennis

St. Thomas Men's Tennis (11-3 overall, 7-2 MIAC) secured the No. 3 playoff seed and third place in the conference with Saturday's 7-2 win over Macalester.

Luke Elifson has won 11 of his kast 12 matches at first singles.

UST Men def. Macalester College 7-2

Doubles:

#1) Joshua Doyle & Brian Utz (M) def. Luke Elifson & Scott Wall (UST) 8-6

#2) Allen-Michael Muench & Brady Radermacher (UST) def. Aidan Tirpak & Hardt Bergmann (M) 8-4

#3) Burke Anderson & Ben Wait (UST) def. Wilson Merrell & Matt Yang (M) 9-7

Singles:

#1) Luke Elifson (UST) def. Joshua Doyle (M) 6-3, 6-2

#2) Brian Utz (M) def. Brady Radermacher (UST) 7-5, 6-1

#3) Burke Anderson (UST) def. Aidan Tirpak (M) 6-2, 6-2

#4) Scott Wall (UST) def. Wilson Merrell (M) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4

#5) Allen-Michael Muench (UST) def. Matt Yang (M) 7-5, 6-3

#6) Ben Wait (UST) def. Peter Willenborg (M) 6-2, 6-2

Baseball

Tommie Baseball was on the ropes Saturday at host St. Olaf as it lost 5-2 in game one, its fifth defeat in six games. UST fell behind 6-1 in game two before Zach Gottfredsen's bases-loaded double keyed a seven-run inning and the Toms came back to win 10-7 for a spllt.

St. John's had a similar game-two comeback with six runs in a 6-5 victory and a split with Bethel.

The Tommies (23-9 overall, 12-4 MIAC) are in a tight race with SJU (13-5 MIAC) and Hamline (10-4) in the 20-game MIAC race.

Ryan Zimmerman allowed no earned runs and struck out five in three innings of relief. Alex Ogren retired four of the five batters he faced for a scoreless outing and a save. Six UST pitchers combined to strike out 20 on the day.

Ryan Gregory hit a solo homer for a key insurance run in just his third career varsity at-bat.

Jake Smith had three hits and Cory Quinlan added two in game two. Dan Ziemann and Jimmy Dolan each had two hits in the opener.

Game 1 box

Game 2 box

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Team Stats

Megan Dupuis

Melissa Barry

Micaela Trainor

Kierstin Anderson-Glass

Players Mentioned

Katie Jo Delisle

Morgan Murphy

Micaela Trainor

University of St. Thomas Athletics