Despite allowing just four hits, freshman pitcher Zach Franz and the Tommies lost to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 3-2 in the opening round of the NCAA baseball playoffs Wednesday in Whitewater, Wis.

The Tommies outhit the Warhawks 8-4, but Whitewater squeaked past the St. Thomas by capitalizing on Tommie errors early in the game.

St. Thomas will play Aurora University, which lost 3-2 Wednesday to UW-Steven’s Point, at 10 a.m. Thursday. The Tommies need to beat Aurora to keep their season alive.

St. Thomas struggled defensively early on, botching a pickoff play in the first inning — the runner eventually scored — and getting mixed up on defense during a ground ball in the fourth inning. Franz fielded the slow grounder but no one was covering first base, and Franz wasn’t going to beat Warhawks’ batter Dylan Friend to the bag. Whitewater’s Matt Bauer, who was on second at the time, came in to score on the play. The Warhawks then took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

The Tommies had a chance to take back the lead with one out and runners on first and third in the top of the seventh, but senior Tim Kahle grounded into a double play to end the inning.

St. Thomas had yet another chance after opening the next inning with back-to-back singles, but the Warhawks got a force out at third base and the next two Tommie batters flew out. The Tommies struck out nine times and stranded seven runners on base, four in scoring position.

Miles Trump can be reached at mttaylorjohn@stthomas.edu