St. Thomas baseball remains in the two-spot in the MIAC standings after splitting its doubleheader series against No. 3-ranked Bethel Royals Thursday at Koch Diamond.
Despite tough play from the Tommies (17-13 overall, 12-4 MIAC), the team fell to the Royals (26-8 overall, 13-5 MIAC) 5-3 in Game 1, but were able to bounce back to take a 3-0 victory in Game 2.
“It is obviously [the] goal to sweep every doubleheader [we] have,” St. Thomas coach Chris Olean said. “But to come out of there with a split and still control our own destiny down the stretch, it certainly could have [been] a lot worse.”
The Tommies started the first game with two hits, including a pair of runs the first and second innings. After getting on base with a single, outfielder Avery Lehman stole second and home in the second inning to bring the score to 2-0.
The Royals had a massive fifth inning, scoring five runs on four hits to give the Royals a 5-2 lead.
The Tommies were able to narrow the deficit to two in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double off the bat of infielder Ryan Lust, but they were unable to retake the lead.
“I thought we played fine,” Olean said. “We certainly could have done a little bit better job with the bats and executing with guys on, but realistically, I thought we played about the same in both games.”
The Tommies were able to connect with the ball in Game 2, getting at least one hit in each of the first five innings. Pitcher Ben Meyer threw six scoreless innings and fanned six while allowing only four hits and a walk.
An RBI single by outfielder Jake Smith started a three-run fifth and gave the Tommies the first, and only, lead of the game.
“A lot of guys look up to me,” Smith said. “It was good to come through and just simplify my job, get a base hit and trust my guys behind me that [they] are going to get me in [to score.]”
Smith tried scoring later in the inning but was called out on a slide at the plate.
Olean protested the call and was subsequently ejected from the game. Despite the ejection and the out, the Tommies would add the last two runs of the night to finish the game 3-0.
“It is nice to see them step up for [me],” Olean said. “I think they at least knew I was fighting for them as best as I could.”
Following the doubleheader, the Tommies are only a game back of Saint John’s University, who sit atop the MIAC . The Tommies will play at home Saturday against Gustavus Adolphus before traveling to Collegeville Sunday to play the Johnnies.
“We’re going to keep it rolling,” Smith said. “We’ve got tough teams ahead of us, but we’ve just got to keep it simple and keep playing like we did today.”
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu.