University of St. Thomas Athletics
Baseball announces 2026 regular season schedule
12/19/2025 9:00:00 AM | Baseball
St. Thomas will play 54 games, 16 at Koch Diamond
ST. PAUL, MINN.- The St. Thomas baseball program has announced its schedule for the 2026 season. The Tommies schedule is jam packed with 56 games total games, 17 of which will be played at Koch Diamond. St. Thomas will open its home schedule with a three-game series against Omaha March 27-29.
"Coming off back-to-back Summit League Championships, our 2026 roster will look a lot different as we welcome 17 new players to the roster," said head coach Chris Olean. "We graduated a tremendous group of seniors that really paved the way for us at the D1 level, and we will look to keep that momentum as we head into our first year of post season eligibility."
St. Thomas will begin its season in Texas, visiting Abilene Christian for a four-game series February 13-15.
"Our non conference schedule has some great opponents this year highlighted by a four-game series at Kansas and New Mexico," said Olean. "We also have a heavy dose of the B1G with two games versus Iowa, Minnesota and a single nine inning game at Northwestern. The Summit will be challenging as always, as the league looks to be strong in 2026."
Throughout February and March, the Tommies will play 25 games on the road, paying visits to Lindenwood, New Mexico, Kansas, Iowa, Northern Colorado, Air Force and Oral Roberts. St. Thomas will also play Minnesota in Minneapolis before before opening up the season at home March 27-29.
The month of April is highlighted by home series against South Dakota State (April 10-12), Minnesota (April 14), and Northern Colorado (April 17-19). The Purple will also play Milwaukee (April 21), Northwestern (April 22), Omaha (April 24-26) and Minnesota (April 28) on the road to finish the month.
St. Thomas will wrap up the regular season in May by hosting Oral Roberts (May 1-3), traveling to Iowa (May 5) and SDSU (May 8-10) before ending the regular season at home against NDSU (May 14-16).
"With so many new players there will certainly be a learning curve as we establish roles and learn how to win with this group," continued Olean. "That being said, we have all the talent we need to make a run at our third consecutive Summit League Championship and a great opportunity to play in and host our first Summit League Tournament."
As the winner of the last two Summit League regular season titles, St. Thomas returns its entire starting infield from the 2025 season, including All-Summit League performers Tanner Recchio and Joe Roder. First Team All-Conference honoree Matthew Maulik returns to anchor the outfield after playing both third base and left field last season, along with redshirt junior Easton Fritcher.
Olean also has high hopes for the pitching staff, which has produced multiple All-Conference performers since leaping to Division I in 2021.
"On the mound this is the most talented group we have ever had but we will need to gain experience as we go. Our projected starters are junior Brayden Olson, a transfer from Purdue, senior Max Skilbeck, who is moving from the closer role into the rotation, freshman Owen Marsolek, who is the reigning Mr. Baseball in Minnesota, and graduate Evan Esch returning from injury could be the best of them all. Behind these guys, we also have several other starting candidates in sophomores Easton Bobb and Chris Petersen. Both have starting experience and are coming off great summer seasons.
Also, in contention for starting spots, are transfers Sam Stockman (Utah) and AJ Rasmussen (Iowa Central). Both guys bring experience and pitch ability and are coming off strong falls. At the back end, we have a number of good options with great arm talent. In contention for leverage roles are junior Nolan Phillips, senior Nolan Kemp, freshman Warren Bowe and Will Piero, and sophomore Nelson Koenig. Closing will be senior Zak Endres."
Following a June ruling, the Tommies are eligible for postseason play for the first time in the Division I era.
