Moline, Ill.,–Third baseman Jack Hogan’s 3 hits and one RBI helped the No. 6-ranked St. Thomas baseball team complete a comeback victory to defeat Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 4-2 in the first round of the NCAA regional tournament Wednesday afternoon in Moline, Illinois.

After conceding two runs, two hits and committing one error in the first inning, the Tommie defense shut down the Engineers for the remainder of the game, allowing no runs and just four hits. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, St. Thomas strung together five singles to manufacture three runs and take a 4-2 lead.

Finding themselves in an early 2-0 hole, the Tommies struggled to put runs on the board for most of the game. Outside of their five-hit, three-run eighth inning, the Tommies managed just six hits in the rest of the game.

St. Thomas cut the Rose-Hulman lead in half in the fourth inning when center fielder Ben Podobinski walked, then stole second to put himself in scoring position. With speedster Podobinski on second base, Hogan singled to left field to score Podobinski and put the Tommies on the board.

After a shaky first inning, starting pitcher Colin Wendinger led the Tommie defense to another strong outing. Wendinger pitched eight innings against the Engineers to earn the victory after pitching a complete game in his last appearance in the MIAC tournament. Pitcher Tommy Danczyk came on in relief in the ninth inning and retired three consecutive batters with two strikeouts to earn a save.

With the win, the Tommies will play No. 15-ranked Buena Vista University, which defeated St. Scholastica 7-1 in its opening game of the NCAA tournament. St. Thomas and Buena Vista met earlier in the season where the two teams split a two-game series.

In the third game of the Moline regional, No. 1-ranked Webster University lost to unranked Depauw University 2-1. Webster will play Rose-Hulman where the loser will be knocked out of the double-elimination tournament.

St. Thomas and Buena Vista will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at Swanson Stadium in Moline.

Jacob Sevening can be reached at seve8586@stthomas.edu.