The St. Thomas baseball team split a doubleheader against Western Illinois University Friday, winning game one 4-1 then losing the second 11-1 at Koch Diamond.
The Tommies (11-24, 5-9 Summit League) played a solid first game, due, in part, to strong pitching from senior pitcher Graham Laubscher, who only let up one run. The Leathernecks (5-34, 3-14) got the better of the pitching staff in the second game, mercy-ruling the Tommies in seven innings.
“Our formula isn’t going to change,” coach Chris Olean said. “We just need to execute it a heck of a lot better.”
Game one
Graham Laubscher continued his streak of excellent Summit League starts, pitching 7 ⅔ innings with only one run allowed. Over his last three conference starts, Laubscher has only allowed two runs in 22 innings.
The Tommies opened the scoring in the fourth inning when sophomore second baseman Sam Kulesa singled home first-year left fielder Brigs Richartz from second to put the Tommies up 1-0.
“Graham kept us in the game,” Olean said. “Despite us not playing bad but not playing great.”
Laubscher held the Leathernecks scoreless as the Tommies piled on in the sixth inning, scoring three runs on three straight hits.
First-year designated hitter Ben Vujovich doubled one run in and sophomore right fielder Jake Porter doubled the other two.
The four runs would be all the scoring for the Tommies. The Leathernecks scored one run off Laubscher in the eighth, which led to junior T.J. Constertina coming in for relief with the Tommies up by three.
Constertina pitched the last inning and ⅓ scoreless, earning his first save of the season.
Game two
Western Illinois took control of game two, scoring in six consecutive innings. The Leathernecks collected fifteen hits off four Tommie pitchers.
“We can’t play a whole lot worse than that,” Olean said.
After a scoreless first, the Leathernecks scored one run in the second, third and fourth innings. Sophomore starter Kolby Gartner went three innings, giving up two runs before being relieved by first-year Colin Dailey, who gave up a run in the fourth inning.
The Leathernecks continued the onslaught in the fifth inning, scoring three runs off sophomore Jack Blesch to take a 6-0 lead.
Senior centerfielder Avery Lehman scored the Tomies’ only run off an error in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-1.
“We’ve got to get back to grinding out at-bats,” Olean said “A lot of uncommitted swings and lots of soft contact.”
First-year pitcher Sam Schlecht relieved Blesch with one out in the sixth. Schlecht finished the inning, but Blesch would be charged with four more runs, bringing the score to 10-1.
Schlecht pitched the seventh for the Tommies, giving up a solo home run that gave the Leathernecks the push they needed to end the game.
The offense was silent in the bottom of the seventh, and the game ended via the mercy rule.
“We have to forget it,” Kulesa said. “Just bring it tomorrow; we didn’t have it today.”
The Tommies return to Koch Diamond Saturday at 1 p.m. for the deciding match of the three-game series.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.