University of St. Thomas Athletics
Thursday, May 20
Collegeville
3 p.m.
27-5
7
vs
2
Bethel University
24-16
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Bethel University
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
2
5
0
Univ. of St. Thomas
0
0
0
1
2
0
0
4
X
7
11
0
Graham Laubscher helped the Toms push their win streak to 13
Photo by: Ryan Coleman
Clutch pitching, young hitters send Baseball past Bethel
5/20/2021 5:20:00 PM | Baseball
Senior lefty Graham Laubscher continued his shutdown ways and redshirt freshman Jake Porter drove in three runs with a pair of RBI hits to lead top-seed St. Thomas to a 7-2 win over fifth-seed Bethel in Thursday's first game of the four-team double-elimination semifinals of the MIAC Baseball Playoffs in Collegeville.
Redshirt freshman Sam Kulesa went 3-for-4 and scored two runs to help St. Thomas (27-5) run its win streak to 13 games. Senior Josh Thorp's two-out triple in the eighth plated two insurance runs. Newcomer Mike Wallace, playing his first varsity game with the Tommies, went 3-for-3 and scored one run.
Coach Chris Olean's Toms moved into Friday's noon winners' bracket game against St. Mary's, a 17-5 winner over second-seed Gustavus.
Bethel (24-16), which had a five-game win streak halted, plays an elimination game at 3 p.m. Friday. The Royals had scored 28 runs in their 3-0 start to the conference playoffs with a sweep of Macalester and Wednesday's 16-8 defeat of St. John's.
Laubscher worked 8 1-3 innings and improved to 6-0 in his seven starts since April 1, recorded against six different league teams. In that stretch the Stillwater, Minn., native has a 1.61 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 14 walks in 50.1 innings.
Bethel took a 1-0 lead with Keenan Hodgkin's solo home run in the second inning. The Toms tied it on Porter's RBI single in the fourth.
St. Thomas went ahead 3-1 in the fifth inning on Kulesa's RBI single that followed hits by Wallace and Matthew Enck. In the Toms' current 13-game win streak, Kulesa is batting .479 (23-of-48) with 15 runs and eight RBI.
The Toms still led just 3-1 when Laubscher's wild pitch with one out in the seventh inning made it 3-2. But the Tommie starter got two strikeouts to strand the tying and go-ahead runners.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Wallace singled and one later Kulesa singled. Wallace was then tagged out at home plate on a close play on a squeeze attempt. But Porter's two-out double pushed the lead to 5-2, and after an intentional walk, Thorp's triple gave the Purple a five-run lead.
Laubscher got a strikeout to start the ninth but was replaced after he issued a walk. T.J. Constertina allowed a walk and a single to load the bases but got two strikeouts to end the game.
St. Thomas is now 15-2 in games this season when it does not commit a fielding error. The Purple lead Division III teams in fielding percentage at .980.
Redshirt freshman Sam Kulesa went 3-for-4 and scored two runs to help St. Thomas (27-5) run its win streak to 13 games. Senior Josh Thorp's two-out triple in the eighth plated two insurance runs. Newcomer Mike Wallace, playing his first varsity game with the Tommies, went 3-for-3 and scored one run.
Coach Chris Olean's Toms moved into Friday's noon winners' bracket game against St. Mary's, a 17-5 winner over second-seed Gustavus.
Bethel (24-16), which had a five-game win streak halted, plays an elimination game at 3 p.m. Friday. The Royals had scored 28 runs in their 3-0 start to the conference playoffs with a sweep of Macalester and Wednesday's 16-8 defeat of St. John's.
Laubscher worked 8 1-3 innings and improved to 6-0 in his seven starts since April 1, recorded against six different league teams. In that stretch the Stillwater, Minn., native has a 1.61 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 14 walks in 50.1 innings.
Bethel took a 1-0 lead with Keenan Hodgkin's solo home run in the second inning. The Toms tied it on Porter's RBI single in the fourth.
St. Thomas went ahead 3-1 in the fifth inning on Kulesa's RBI single that followed hits by Wallace and Matthew Enck. In the Toms' current 13-game win streak, Kulesa is batting .479 (23-of-48) with 15 runs and eight RBI.
The Toms still led just 3-1 when Laubscher's wild pitch with one out in the seventh inning made it 3-2. But the Tommie starter got two strikeouts to strand the tying and go-ahead runners.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Wallace singled and one later Kulesa singled. Wallace was then tagged out at home plate on a close play on a squeeze attempt. But Porter's two-out double pushed the lead to 5-2, and after an intentional walk, Thorp's triple gave the Purple a five-run lead.
Laubscher got a strikeout to start the ninth but was replaced after he issued a walk. T.J. Constertina allowed a walk and a single to load the bases but got two strikeouts to end the game.
St. Thomas is now 15-2 in games this season when it does not commit a fielding error. The Purple lead Division III teams in fielding percentage at .980.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Laubscher, Graham (6-2)
L: Ty Koehn (1-4)
Batting:
2B: James Woelfel 1
HR: Keenan Hodgkin 1
RBI: Keenan Hodgkin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nick Wibben 1 ; Keenan Hodgkin 1
CS: Nick Kulseth 1
Batting:
2B: Kulesa, Sam 1 ; Porter, Jake 1
3B: Thorp, Josh 1
RBI: Kulesa, Sam 1 ; Porter, Jake 3 ; Thorp, Josh 2
SH: Lehman, Avery 1 ; Porter, Jake 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kulesa, Sam 2 ; Lehman, Avery 1 ; Porter, Jake 1 ; Bartholomew, Charlie 1 ; Wallace, Mike 1 ; Enck, Matthew 1
SB: Porter, Jake 1
PO: Kulesa, Sam 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
1
AB
3
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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