MINNEAPOLIS – The St. Thomas baseball team swept UW-La Crosse, winning their first game 5-1 and the second game 3-1, giving coach Chris Olean his 300th and 301st career wins.
Olean reflected on his career wins saying he has a lot of his life to look back on dedicating over 25 years to the program.
“It’s humbling to be able to coach that long. Eleven seasons goes by really fast,” Olean said. “I just have a lot of pride in it: knowing that I played here for 4 years and assisted for 9. Twenty five years of my life has been in this program,” Olean said.
Tommies win 5-1 beating UW-La Crosse Eagles
St. Thomas (6-1) junior third baseman Kyle Halverson scored first in the 2nd inning on a throwing error from the Eagles’ (0-3-1) left fielder on a hit by senior utility Chandler Schaefbauer.
The Tommies scored four runs in the third inning, with the first two scored on wild pitches from two different Eagles pitchers.
Sophomore catcher Charlie Bartholomew hit a single and drove in two runs scored by Halverson and Shaefbauer. All runs were scored by Shaefbauer, sophomore infielder Jack Cole and Bartholomew.
“It’s a great experience being able to play out here on these facilities and play in a big stadium is a lot of fun,” Bartholomew said.
Junior starting pitcher Andrew Tri threw his first career complete game and first win of the season. Tri threw seven innings, struck out 11 batters, gave up four hits, one earned run and finished the game with a 1.35 ERA.
“It feels pretty good, I was relieving a lot last year and I enjoyed that, but I really wanted to start this year and I was glad I could finally get a complete game under my belt,” Tri said. “It’s a pretty cool experience (playing at U.S. Bank Stadium).”
Tri finished last year 3-3 with five starts and 15 appearances.
Senior pitcher Alex Schulte took the loss for UW-La Crosse.
The Tommies had six hits, with Halverson and Bartholomew leading the charge.
Tommies sweep doubleheader with a 3-1 victory
UW-La Crosse started the game with one run by senior first baseman Carson Youngquist.
St. Thomas evened the score in the third inning, when Lehman doubled on a 1-2 count, scoring one run.
Senior outfielder Josh Thorpe tripled on the first pitch of his at bat scoring another.
Junior starting pitcher Graham Laubscher earned the win for the Tommies. He pitched six innings, allowing two hits and one run while striking out five.
Senior pitcher Shaun Falbo recorded the save with one inning of relief out of the bullpen getting the last three outs.
UW-La Crosse senior pitcher Conner Cook took the loss. He lasted five innings, allowing five hits, three runs, striking out three and walking one.
Thorpe went 2-for-3 at the plate, hit his fifth triple in seven games this season and scored the last run for the Tommies.
“It’s cool, but I just care about driving runs in,” Thorpe said.
The Tommies head to Wartburg Saturday and Sunday for a two-day matchup. Both games start at 1 p.m.
Andrés Tejeda can be reached at atejeda@stthomas.edu.
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.