University of St. Thomas Athletics
South Dakota State
Game Notes - Baseball plays two Sunday at South Dakota St.
5/9/2022 3:49:00 PM | Baseball
The Purple are scheduled to play three at home May 19-21 vs. Omaha to close the season. After starting its inaugural D-I campaign with a 5-21 won-loss record -- with 15 defeats by one or two runs -- St. Thomas is 8-5 over its last 13 games. The Toms' staff ERA is 4.49 with 380 strikeouts and 184 walks over 331 innings. They have allowed 41 HRs in 36 games.
The Tommies (13-26 overall, 7-11 Summit) played 30-win Oral Roberts tough on May 6-7 in Tulsa, losing a late 6-2 lead and falling 7-6 in 10 innings on Friday night and holding on to win 4-3 on Saturday. ORU took the series by a 2-1 margin with Sunday's 14-0 win in seven innings. The Purple sit in fifth place in the seven-team Summit standings with five league games to go. St. Thomas Baseball is ineligible for postseason play this season as a transitioning school seeking full D-I status.
In their provious season meeting, the Jacks won all three games at St. Thomas back in April at St. Thomas by scores of 5-3, 2-1 and 6-1.
About South Dakota State
The Jacks (18-19, 9-7) are 4-2 at home and have won 12 of their last 16 to move closer to locking up a Summit playoff spot. They need a combination of two wins, or two losses by Northern Colorado, to take one of the four playoff spots. They are 8-4 in games decided by one or two runs. The SDSU pitchers have allowed just 19 home runs and have a 5.03 ERA. On offense, the Jacks have hit 43 HRs and have four players with 37 or more hits over 37 games. They have two fifth-year and three traditional seniors on a 36-player roster.
Follow UST vs. South Dakota State
Live Video: https://gojacks.com/watch/?Live=4288&type=Live
Live Stats Link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=381644
Golden Graham
Individually, lefty starter Graham Laubscher ranks among the top 55 in D-I in Ks per nine innings (11.5). Over his last five starts, Laubscher is 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA with 42 Ks in 34 innings. May 7 at Oral Roberts, the fifth-year player made his 37th college start and 48th pitching appearance. He allowed one run and fanned eight and left with a 4-1 lead after seven innings in an eventual 4-1 win.
Laubscher's 87 Ks lead all Summit League pitchers and rank him among the top 35 in D-I. He's on pace to become the first college pitcher to strike out 100 in both D-III and D-I in back-to-back seasons. He was a D-III All-America and a CoSIDA Academic All-America in 2021 when he helped the Toms take second in the nation.
More Graham
Laubscher on April 12 was named Division I co-National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA). He also was named Ticket Smarter Summit Baseball Pitcher of the Week. He struck out a career-best 15 in a two-hit defeat of North Dakota State on April 9 (6-0), the Bison's first nine-inning shutout loss.The Toms have received the national weekly pitching award eight times in the 20-year history of the award.
National Stats
Out of 300 D-I teams, the Tommies rank with the top national programs in three categories: strikeouts per nine innings (10.3, top 25); ERA (4.49, top 60); and fielding percentage (.975, top 50).
Chris Gets Win No. 350
The 2021 NCAA Region Coach of the Year, Chris Olean won his 350th game May 1 with the 12-2 home defeat of WIU. He's in his 13th season here and his 26th season as a player or coach. Olean ranked with D-III's top coaches with a 338-148-1 record (.693 win %), averaging 30 wins a season. He mentored five D-III All-America pitchers and guided teams to seven of 11 conference titles.
More Tommie Buzz
After starting 1-16 on the road, the Toms are 5-4 in their last nine away contests. The team has 16 losses by one or two runs. They are 1-6 vs. Big Ten teams Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern, with three of those losses by one run. They are 0-5 in extra-inning games, and have eight walk-off losses.
Freshman Ben Vujovich had the first six-RBI game of the D-I era at Tarleton. He later recorded six RBI in the first two games at Oral Roberts, including the program's first grand slam (May 6). Over the last 13 games in helping the Toms go 8-5, Vujovich is batting .349 (15-for-43) with six runs and 15 RBI.
Matthew Enck is batting .342 in his last 12 games (12-of-35) with nine runs.
Freshman Brigs Richartz leads the team in RBI (23) and has 35 hits in 39 games.
Redshirt junior closer T.J. Constertina is 2-3 (two saves), a 1.32 ERA and 22 Ks in 21 innings over 15 appearances this season.
Senior Kyle Halverson is batting 20-for-69 (.290) with 15 RBI, 12 runs and six HRs over his last 18 games. He had four homers and six RBI in the North Dakota State series. He leads the team in HRs (eight), walks (20) and runs (22), and has 35 hits in his 39 games. During his D-III era, Halverson hit four home runs over 100 games. He has eight HRs thus far in D-I over 36 games.
The Purple climbed into the top 15 in D-I fielding percentage, moving as high as .981, with six consecutive error-free defensive games in April. But the Purple have recorded 15 errors over the last nine games to fall back to .975.
In the Toms' first D-I win, 2-0 on Feb. 25 vs. Sacred Heart, Walker Retz and Laubscher combined on a three-hit shutout with 18 strikeouts.
Sam Kulesa, who doubled in his first D-I plate appearance Feb. 18 at Florida International, has 36 hits in 36 games in 2022.
Soph RHP Kolby Gartner struck out the side in the first inning of his D-I debut. A rare Division I two-sport athlete, he was the starting punter for St. Thomas Football last fall (44.4 yards on 33 punts for the 7-3 Toms). He threw a three-hit shutout to beat Minnesota and was named conference Pitcher of the Week.
