Tommies Avenge Early Season Losses Over Saints

Box Score

     St. Scholastica got the best of St. Thomas to start the season, but the Tommies had the final say at the end of the year with a 13-3 win in an elimination game on Thursday at the NCAA Division III regional tournament in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

     The Tommies, who were swept by the Saints in a season-opening doubleheader on March 7 at the Metrodome, scored runs in six different innings and became the third team in Division III tournament history with four sacrifice flies in a game. Overall, the teams combined to tie a Division III record for sacrifice flies in any game with five, marking the eighth time it�s happened.

     St. Thomas, which defeated Dominican 22-3 earlier in the day, had 35 runs and 34 for the day. The Tommies had scored in double figures just once in their previous 26 games entering Thursday. They are now 31-10 overall and advance to face either UW-Stevens Point or Coe on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

     St. Scholastica, which made its third tournament appearance and ended the year 37-6, took the lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Swartz. However, the Tommies put up four runs in the top of the second as Mike Moran hit a three-run homer to right center and Mike Kimlinger followed with a solo homer in nearly the same spot. Kimlinger has now homered in each of the Tommies� three NCAA tournament games.

     Pinch-hitters Eric Bloom and Chris Bullis each hit two of the Tommies� sacrifice flies in the third inning for a 6-1 lead. Another sacrifice fly by Mark Boland in the fifth put St. Thomas ahead 7-1 and one more by Zach Goldberg in the eighth made it 12-2.

     St. Scholastica had eight hits, but hit into double plays in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings to end potential rallies. St. Thomas starter Dan Leslie went the distance, finishing with six strikeouts and one walk.

     Boland finished three-for-three and Moran drove in five runs for the Tommies. Chad Weiss was four-for-four to lead St. Scholastica.