University of St. Thomas Athletics
Throwback Thursday: Dennis' 500th win part of a special 2009
4/15/2020 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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Dennis Denning had a remarkable 15-year career as Tommie Baseball head coach from 1994-2009. Denning guided St. Thomas to NCAA championships in 2001 and 2009, plus national runner-up placings in 1999 and 2000. The 1999 runner-up showing was led by senior All-America pitcher Chris Olean, now in his 11th season as UST head coach.
Nearly 11 years ago, on tax day, April 15, 2009, the Toms played host to St. Olaf in an MIAC doubleheader at Koch Diamond, as Denning pursued his 500th victory as a college coach, all with the Purple.
A lively doubleheader produced -- SPOILER ALERT -- each school leaving the diamond with one victory, and fuel for some key rematches coming in May. The teams would split eight games over a five-week span in 2009, in a season when both were capable of contendung for an NCAA crown.
In May, St. Thomas would edge St. Olaf 4-3 to open the double-elimination MIAC Playoffs only to watch the Oles get 19-1 and 8-0 revenge wins later in the weekend to claim the playoff championship.
St. Thomas received an at-large NCAA playoff bid into regional play in Oshkosh. After a 17-inning defeat of UW-Stevens Point and an 8-4 win over St. Scholastica, Denning's guys lost a winners-bracket game to the Oles, 5-2. They rebounded to win three elimination games, the last two by 11-2 and 5-0 scores over the Oles, to advance to the eight-team national tournament.
St. Thomas won three more elimination games at the NCAA finals in Appleton, including a 6-4, 3-2 sweep of Wooster on the last day to claim the national championship. Counting his Cretin-Derham Hall coaching days, the Wooster wins were No. 900 and 901 of Denning's career.
Seven months later, Denning retired at age 65. His 522-157 Tommie record (.769 win%) was the best mark in his era among all NCAA Division III baseball coaches.
In each of his last 14 seasons, Tommie Baseball won either the MIAC's regular-season or postseason championship.
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Click here to read April 15, 2009 preview story
Game story of Tommie-Ole doubleheader split
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Gene's Blog: When Oles, Tommies play, It's Not Unusual...
An upcoming eight-day stretch will feature these sports occurrences on the St. Thomas campus:
- An NFL player and an Olympic gold medalist will both compete in a Tommie track and field meet.
- The Gopher football team will hold its spring game at O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
- John Gagliardi will receive an award and give a speech.
Amazing, yes, but those unique events still pale in comparison to Wednesday's MIAC baseball doubleheader at UST between St. Olaf and St. Thomas. For the cost of a campus or city parking ticket, fans were treated to everything but dollar Dome Dogs.
Splendid sunshine. Elite teams. Impressive starting pitching. Clutch at-bats. A notable milestone. A controversial call. A 6-foot-6 shortstop. A 5-foot-6 second baseman. The first-ever UST produced on-campus baseball webcast.
There was even a classic Tom Jones song on the sound system.
After 270 minutes in the sun, St. Olaf and No. 13-ranked St. Thomas split a pair of two-run decisions. At the halfway point of the conference race, they're once again the teams to beat.
Over the course of the delightful April afternoon, fans were treated to not one but two installments of Tom Jones' snappy 1965 hit "It's Not Unusual." That was fitting, because when the Tommies and Oles get together on the diamond, you can expect the unusual.
For instance, a St. Thomas pitcher named Erik Olson took the loss and a St. Olaf pitcher also named Erik Olson got the save. It's the third time in the last 13 months that Erik O. and Erik O. have both pitched in the same inning.
Also on Wednesday, 10 miles away, an Augsburg hitter named Eric Olson had a sacrifice fly in a sweep of Bethel. (We won't even update you on UST's Matt Olson and the Oles' Wes Olson).
MIAC's Elite
Over the last dozen years, the Tommie-Ole series has included several memorable 1-0 and 2-1 battles. But offense ruled last season, when the Tommies won all four meetings with St. Olaf by a combined 54-17 margin.
Seven different schools won the conference baseball championship in a span from 1990-96. But St. Thomas (10 titles) and St. Olaf (four) have won or shared the MIAC championship every year since then. (St. John's shared the crown once). The 2009 race is shaping up the same way, with UST (8-2) and St. Olaf (4-2) firmly atop the title chase and eight more teams expected to battle for the final two playoff spots.
Tommie coach Dennis Denning won his 500th college game in the opener and now stands 500-150 here in 15 seasons. That's three times the number of victories by Timberwolves head coaches not named Flip.
Add in Denning's 378-76 coaching mark at Cretin-Derham Hall, and that's an 80% winning rate. The team he's faced the most often? Thanks to 15 postseason matchups, it's St. Olaf (UST leads 28-17, including 11-4 postseason record).
In the same 15 seasons, St. Olaf coach Matt McDonald is now 389-182, an excellent 68% win clip.
Denning's Tommie teams have finished first or second in the MIAC every year but one. The 2001 Tommies placed third after getting swept on the last day at St. Olaf, but achieved a bigger feat later in May. They won the Division III national title.
Big-Game Aura
The Tommies and Oles couldn't afford getting swept Wednesday, so it was a tense mood on the field and in the stands. Both coaches sent hard-throwing righthanders to the mound in game one.
St. Thomas junior RHP Matt Schuld set the tone for his team with a dominant one-hit shutout with seven strikeouts. Schuld walked one and hit a batter, and only one of the four Ole baserunners got past first base.
In four 2009 starts against Midwest Region powers St. Scholastica, UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh and St. Olaf, Schuld is 4-0 with 30 strikeouts and eight walks and a 2.77 ERA in 26 innings. In his last 15 innings, Schuld has allowed no runs, four hits and two walks with 16 strikeouts.
St. Olaf pitcher Brandon Agneberg was sharp. The only time he didn't retire the first batter of an inning it proved costly. Matt Olson reached in the fifth inning on hard liner that went for an infield single, and Louie Salmen followed with a high, deep, hooking fly ball over the foul pole in left field. Without hesitation, the home-plate ump ruled it a two-run homer, and it would stand as the game's only runs.
The usually mild-mannered McDonald gave fans a flashback to his late 1980s days as an Ole 2B-quarterback. He sprinted to the field to protest, and explained to the umpire that last year, four out of five tax returns checked by H&R Block had errors.
Did it work? Let's just say U.S. Senate candidate Norm Coleman is lucky that this umpire isn't hearing his appeal. His mind was made up.
The truth is, unless you were standing at the fence and had instant-replay cameras, it was impossible to tell whether Salmen's hit was fair or foul when it left the yard. So the 5-foot-10 infielder with a Hall of Famer's first name and a major-league slugger's last name had his sixth career home run, part of a 4-for-6 day at the plate.
Super Seniors
The games featured two seniors who have been key players throughout their four-year careers. St. Thomas' Dan Leslie and St. Olaf's Todd Mathison have a chance to join a select group to make first-team All-MIAC all four years of their careers.
Leslie went 6-for-7 at the plate on Wednesday and in his last three seasons has 22 hits in 42 at bats against St. Olaf.
Mathison, who pitched into the eighth inning, didn't want to give up the ball. Despite allowing 13 hits and six earned runs he came away with his 24th career win. His 24-4 mark includes a 14-2 record against MIAC opponents. One of those losses came earlier this month to Bethel in a 1-0 decision. The other came in April 2008 at home when the Tommies struck for four runs in the last at-bat to win 12-9.
It was a better day for starting pitchers (25.1 innings, 26 hits, 22 Ks, two walks, 3.60 ERA) than relievers (3.2 innings, eight hits, four Ks, two walks, 12.30 ERA). St. Olaf's Erik Olson walked one of the three he faced after Agneberg and Mathison pitched to 57 batters without a walk. But the Oles' Olson got a fly out to the fence with the bases loaded to close out the victory.
Touch 'Em All
The clutch play of the day? With the Tommies trailing 6-3 in game two in their last at bat, catcher Ben Wartman blasted a pitch over the left-field fence onto Cretin Avenue to tie the score 6-6. Wartman rushed for 1,311 yards last fall as an All-West Region running back, but his 360-foot trot around the bases Wednesday had to be his sweetest journey so far of 2008-09.
At least this competition didn't last six overtim
es like Wartman and his football teammates endured last September in a 29-23 loss in Northfield. But it did have one LONG extra inning, where 15 guys came to bat.
In game two, it was seven hits by the Oles' twin brothers Tyler Jones (4-for-5) and Carson Jones (3-for-5) -- three more hits than Tom Jones has had since 1975 -- that denied the Toms the sweep.
But as Tom Jones would say, that's not unusual. It's just the Tommie-Ole baseball rivalry.
The next installment will likely come in 22 days at the MIAC playoffs in Northfield and Dundas.
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Gene's Blog is a sports column penned by UST sports information director Gene McGivern. Gene is in his 26th season at St. Thomas and 32nd overall in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He blogs periodically on various topics regarding the Tommies, the MIAC and Division III sports.
If you have comments or questions, e-mail Gene at ejmcgivern@stthomas.edu
