St. Thomas evened their season series with St. John’s University Saturday stealing a pair of wins with an efficient pair of senior arms at Koch Diamond. Andrew Tri and Graham Laubscher totaled 25 combined strikeouts and both threw complete game shutouts with no earned runs.
The Tommies (12-3) took the first seven-inning game 5-1 and the second nine-inning game 2-1, capturing their ninth straight win and snapping a seven game losing streak against St. John’s (11-6).
“If you can go 16 innings with no earned runs, I think that’s pretty good for the day,” coach Chris Olean said. “They (Tri and Laubscher) are our two horses. They have been our one-two here for a couple of years and big game pitchers.”
Olean was in quarantine for the first meeting with St. John’s so he was excited to send the same starting pitchers back on the hill.
“We had a pretty good plan for what we were trying to do with them in terms of what pitches to throw, so the pitchers did a really good job of executing pitches all day and kind of pitched away from their (St. John’s) strengths,” Olean said.
Game 1
Senior pitcher Andrew Tri held the Johnnies to just two hits and struck out 11 over seven innings marking the third consecutive start where Tri has not allowed an earned run.
The Tommies’ bats stayed relatively quiet until the sixth inning when they plated four insurance runs and knocked out St. John’s starting pitcher Nathen Brandecker.
“Overall, the approach was good from the offense and what we were trying to do is correct, we just need to cut down on the strikeouts,” Olean said.
The Tommies’ offense gained the lead in the second inning when red-shirt sophomore catcher Carlie Bartholomew singled and drove red-shirt junior Kyle Halverson home, putting the Tommies ahead 1-0.
The Tommies would not score again until first-year first baseman Owen Best hit a bases clearing single in the sixth inning that rolled past St. John’s first-year left fielder Jack Schleper. Best went 2-3 with a triple, double and 3 RBIs.
The Johnnies’ only run of the game came in the top of the 7th when sophomore infielder Owen Dauk scored on a wild pitch.
Game 2
Costly errors in the second and third innings by St. John’s proved to be the difference in the game as senior infielder Sam Kuesla and senior outfielder Avery Lehamn both scored on an error after each getting one of St. Thomas’ three hits in the game.
Laubscher battled with St. John’s pitcher Casey Trapp as they both threw complete games and totaled 22 combined strikeouts. Laubscher bounced back strong after allowing four earned runs in five innings during the first matchup with St. John’s in a losing effort March 24.
“I think we outplayed them the first two times, just couldn’t get the wins, and it was good to come back and get them when it counted in conference play,” Laubscher said.
Olean admitted after the game that Laubscher threw around 150 pitches but confidence in his pitcher never waned.
“In my pitching experience it’s a bit of a mythical number depending on how the guy is and how the balls come out,” Olean said. “His last pitch was 88 (MPH) so he held it through the whole thing, so I thought it was pretty fun to watch.”
St. John’s created a threat with two outs in the eighth inning but Laubscher stayed strong and got Brandecker to ground out with runners on first and third.
The Tommies will travel to Collegeville for their fifth meeting with the Johnnies tomorrow for a single game at 2 p.m.
Joey Swanson can be reached at swan5350@stthomas.edu.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.