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Late Rally Comes
Up Short as Pointers Fall to Oles
St. Olaf jumped out to a quick lead on UW-Stevens
Point and hung on for a 7-3 victory with the tying run at the plate in the
ninth inning to stay alive in the NCAA Division III baseball regional on
Thursday in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
The Oles, who were no-hit in their opening game on
Wednesday, got a two-run homer from Chris Terrazas in the first inning and a
three-run blast from Josh Schultheis for an early 6-1 lead. St. Olaf then
rode the arm of Paul Johnson, who threw eight-plus innings and worked out of
several jams. Johnson allowed a hit and a walk to the first two batters in
the ninth, but Todd Mathison came on to get a game-ending double play and
help the Oles improve to 33-9 overall. Johnson allowed eight hits and two
earned runs while striking out eight.
St. Olaf advances to face UW-Oshkosh in an
elimination game on Friday at 3:30 p.m. UW-Stevens Point, which lost its
first game of the tournament and had an eight-game winning streak snapped to
slip to 29-15 overall, takes on either Ripon or St. Thomas in an elimination
contest on Friday at noon.
After their no-hit outing in the first game, St.
Olaf�s second batter of the game, Carson Jones, lined a triple off the
center field fence to spark the Oles� offense. After a strikeout, Terrazas
homered to left field for the early lead.
The Pointers� Jordan Zimmermann drove in a run
with a double in the third following an Oles� error and UW-Stevens Point had
runners on second and third with one out, but Johnson was able to wiggle out
of the threat.
St. Olaf then took advantage of four Pointers�
walks in the bottom of the third and got a run-scoring fielder�s choice by
Terrazas before Schultheis cleared the fence in left field for a 6-1 lead.
Pointers� starter Brandon Hemstead allowed six
runs in two and one-third innings before Travis Kempf and Jeremy Dunnihoo
finished up by allowing no earned runs over five and two-thirds innings to
give the Pointers a chance at a comeback. Kempf worked out of several jams
himself, stranding the bases loaded in the third and fifth and two runners
in the sixth. Both teams left 11 runners on base as the Pointers stranded
runners in every inning but the seventh.
The Pointers scored one run in the eighth on a
run-scoring groundout by Justin Bushong, but left another runner at third
base and trailed 7-2 entering the ninth. They scored one run when a
potential game-ending double play ball hit by Adam Evanoff was mishandled,
leaving the bases loaded with one out for Brandon Scheidler, who grounded to
second base and was called out on a close play at first.
Stewart Larsen and Joel Hojnacki each had two hits
for the Pointers, while Jones was three-for-four for the Oles. Terrazas and
Josh Maus also had two hits apiece. |
