The St. Thomas baseball team started the MIAC playoffs Friday as the No. 1 seed.

In game one, the Tommies lost 3-2 to No. 4 seed Augsburg on a walk-off home run in the eighth inning.

The Auggies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the Tommies tied it up with a home run from senior Roy Larson in the bottom of the fourth. St. Thomas took the lead in the fifth inning on a junior Tayler Rahm two-out single that scored senior John Bauer from third. The Auggies tied the game in the sixth and then won the game on a walk-off home run from Adam Seaman.

Starting pitcher Kris Edwards pitched a complete game, giving up three runs and dropping his third one-run loss of the season.

“I knew coming into the game that I had to get ahead of the hitters, make the right pitches. They are aggressive hitters, good hitters,” Edwards said.

The Tommies collected seven hits in the game, but only one in the last four innings.

In game two, the Tommies took on the No. 3 seed St. Johns, who lost on a walk-off against Concordia 4-3 in it’s first game. The Tommies rebounded after game one to defeat the Johnnies 5-0 to stay alive in the MIAC playoffs.

Senior All-American Matt Schuld pitched a complete game shutout, striking out eight. Schuld’s scoreless inning streak has now reached 29 innings.

“I was happy with my performance. I was able to keep the hitters off balance by getting ahead of them early in the count,” Schuld said.

Schuld also talked about playing in games facing elimination.

“We’ve been here before and I’ve pitched in elimination games before. We weren’t really nervous and it helped that we were loose.”

The Tommies will play Concordia at 1 p.m. Saturday on Dundas Field.

Brian Woitte can be reached at bmwoitte@stthomas.edu.