ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded St. Olaf College baseball team eased to an 11-1 run-rule victory over fourth-seeded Saint Mary's University in the opening game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Baseball Playoffs on Thursday afternoon at CHS Field.

In its first playoff appearance since 2019, St. Olaf (28-12) got six strong innings on the mound from senior Sam Lavin and scored in five of its seven innings at the plate to claim the seven-inning win over Saint Mary's (20-17). The Oles staked Lavin to a 2-0 lead in the first inning before pulling away with three multi-run innings over the final four frames.

With the win, St. Olaf will face the winner of Thursday's second game between second-seeded Bethel University and third-seeded Saint John's University at 3 p.m. on Friday, May 10. The Cardinals will meet the loser of Thursday night's game in an elimination game at 12 p.m.

Lavin improved to 7-2 on the season by holding Saint Mary's to one run on four hits with four walks and a career-high-tying 12 strikeouts in his 6.0 innings of work. The senior's 12-strikeout game gave him 90 for the season, which is the second-highest total in program history behind Colin Brackeen's program-record 99 strikeouts established in 1997.

Seven Oles had at least one hit in the victory, which was St. Olaf's 24th all-time win in the MIAC Playoffs. The 24 victories are the most of any current member of the MIAC. First year Cole Pleimann, senior Brian Nevin, and sophomore Frank Lavin picked up two hits apiece.

Nevin was 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI, Pleimann was 2-for-4 with three runs scored, and Frank Lavin added an RBI to his 2-for-4 day. St. Olaf took advantage of four errors by the Cardinals to score five unearned runs in the victory.

St. Olaf put two runs on the board without needing a hit in the bottom of the first. After junior Evan Hammonds drew a leadoff walk, junior Matthew Kulesa put down a sacrifice bunt that the Saint Mary's pitcher threw down the right-field line to put two runners in scoring position. Sam Lavin brought in one run with a sacrifice fly before senior Joey Glampe plated another with a ground out.

After being held without a hit in the first three innings, the Oles tallied three runs on four hits in the fourth to open up a 5-0 cushion. St. Olaf's leadoff batter in the inning was retired, but the five Oles all reached base, with four delivering hits. Sophomore Breckin Hadley had an RBI single in the inning, while Nevin added a two-run single.

Saint Mary's got its lone run of the game in the top of the fifth but left the bases loaded after Lavin recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and limit the damage. The Oles added two runs to their lead in the fifth, including one on a two-out double by sophomore Mason Buck, and another in the sixth on a two-out RBI triple by Sam Lavin.

St. Olaf completed the run-rule victory with three runs in the bottom of the seventh while capitalizing on two more errors by the Cardinals. With runners on the corners and out one, Nevin and Frank Lavin recorded back-to-back run-scoring singles before the fourth Saint Mary's error of the game brought in the final run.