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Left fielder Rock Cates carried the Tommies Wednesday, throwing out a potential game-winning run at home plate and contributing both game-winning hits as the St. Thomas baseball team swept Augsburg 5-2 and 7-5 at Parade Stadium.

The Tommies (11-8 overall, 4-0 MIAC) pushed their winning streak to six games with their wins over the Auggies (13-11 overall, 1-3 MIAC).

With the game tied at two in the bottom of the final inning of the first game and the winning run on second base, Augsburg center fielder Jordan DeCroock lined a single to left field where Cates fielded the ball on one hop and made a perfect throw to catcher Anthony Winters, who tagged Auggie runner Eric Olheiser to send the game to extra innings.

“Jake (Smith) looked over at me before that play and said, ‘It’s do or die right here,’” Cates said. “Sure enough, I had a ball hit at me and made the play.”

After a single by Hunter Hart to start the top of the eighth and a sacrifice bunt by Sam Schneider, Cates stepped up to the plate and lined a home run over the left field wall, just inside the foul pole.

“Cates’ home run was huge for us,” St. Thomas coach Chris Olean said. “He’s been taking good at-bats in BP, deserved a shot and he definitely stepped up today.”

The Tommies added another run in the inning on a single by Zach Gottfredsen to bring game one to the final score of 5-2.

Josh Thorp hit a pinch hit home run in the seventh inning to tie the game at two.

Sam Cobbs drove in the other run for St. Thomas on a safety squeeze bunt in the third inning.

Ryan Zimmerman tossed a complete game for St. Thomas, going all eight innings and striking out nine Auggie batters while not giving up an earned run. Zimmerman finished with an astonishing 138 pitches.

“Zimmy threw a hell of a game,” Olean said. “You want to keep your best arms out there if you can and he was great today.”

Augsburg led for much of game two, holding a 3-1 lead to start the fifth inning after Olheiser homered off Tommie starter Drew Molin.

However, the Tommies answered back with a six run inning, highlighted by a double off the left field wall by Cobbs to tie the game at three and a two run single by Cates to take the lead 5-3.

Logan Kohorst had two singles in the inning with the second driving in two runs to make it 7-3.

Zach Gottfredsen drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center earlier in the inning.

Augsburg did not go quietly, however, scoring runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

The Auggies had perhaps their best chance in the sixth inning when they had runners at first and third against Tommie reliever Mitch Maurer but Maurer got Augsburg shortstop Mike Brookshaw to pop out to end the inning.

Alex Ogren pitched a scoreless inning to record the save.

“It’s huge to get a couple of comeback wins,” Gottfredsen said. “It shows we can find that rally when we need it.”

Next up for the Tommies is a matchup with Concordia in Moorhead on Saturday and Olean knows it could be slugfest.

“They always hit,” Olean said of the Cobbers.

First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Taylor Smith can be reached at smit9660@stthomas.edu.