ST. PAUL, Minn. – The third-seeded St. Olaf College baseball team fell to second-seeded Saint John's University (Minn.) in its first game at the 2019 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Baseball Playoffs at CHS Field on Thursday evening.
Saint John's (29-11) scored in each of the first three innings on its way to an early 6-0 lead and got a complete game from Jake Dickmeyer on its way to the tournament-opening victory. Junior
Ryan Torbenson hit a two-run home run in the fifth for St. Olaf (26-14), which brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth.
The Oles will take on fourth-seeded Saint Mary's University (Minn.) in an elimination game on Friday, May 10 at 3 p.m. at Bethel University. The Cardinals dropped the opener of the tournament, 5-2, to top-seeded Gustavus Adolphus College. The Gusties and Johnnies will also play each other at 3 p.m. on Friday at CHS Field, with the winner advancing to the championship on Saturday.
Saint John's jumped on starter
Sam Westermeyer with three runs in the bottom of the first on a three-run home run by Joey Stock. Back-to-back one-out singles by Max Jackson and Jack Schramel put runners on the corners for Stock, who lofted his MIAC-leading 12th home run of the season over the right-field fence.
The Johnnies added another run in the second on a ground out by Schramel. After a one-out double by Wyatt Ulrich, Jackson walked to put two runners on before a double steal left two runners in scoring position for Schramel, who brought in Ulrich with a grounder to second.
A two-out, two-run home run by Michael Gruber in the third pushed Saint John's lead to 6-0. Westermeyer retired the first two batters of the inning before Ethan Roe drew a two-out walk to extend the inning for Gruber, who cleared the fence in right.
Dickmeyer carried a perfect game into the fifth, retiring the first 13 batters he faced before a one-out walk to
Luke Dahl. Two batters later, Torbenson blasted his third home run of the season to right to get the Oles on the board.
Senior
Thomas Peterson kept St. Olaf in the game, throwing five innings of three-hit shutout relief with two walks and three strikeouts.
Down by three with three outs to go, the Oles generated a rally in the ninth, starting the inning with three-straight singles. Sophomore
TJ Rogers and junior
Tommy McDonald singled to begin the inning before junior
Dylan Blake brought in Rogers with a single up the middle.
With the tying run at the plate, Dickmeyer got two strikeouts on either side of fly ball to the wall in left center off the bat of the bat of Dahl that was nearly a game-tying home run. Dickmeyer struck out seven and allowed three runs on five hits with just one walk in his seventh victory of the season.
