Spring is around the corner and that means St. Thomas baseball and softball are ready for their inaugural Division I seasons. New players, coaches, new and returning, and competition are just waiting for the snow to melt.
Junior infielder Kyle Halverson takes a pitch while a runner leads off of third base. (Cam Kauffman/TommieMedia)
Baseball
After finishing 37-10 in their final MIAC season, and finishing second in the NCAA Division III national championship tournament, St. Thomas baseball is heading into the Summit League. The Tommies’ new conference foes are Oral Roberts, North Dakota State, Omaha, South Dakota State and Western Illinois. Coach Chris Olean returns for his 13th year at the helm.
“We want to be competitive – play our brand of baseball,” Olean said. “Baseball is still baseball; we can be in games late.”
The Tommies return 17 players and add 12 first-years to the squad.
“I think that everyone is really excited,” fifth-year senior pitcher Graham Laubscher said. “Also to go to warm weather in the middle of a Minnesota winter.”
Laubscher has been awarded all-conference three times and was voted Most Valuable Player in the MIAC last season.
The Tommies hit the road for an entire month to start their season, taking on Florida International University in Miami at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18. They will play their first home game on March 30 against Viterbo University at 3 p.m.
“We’ll be exciting,” Olean said. “Even last year, at the DIII level, our team is based on playing aggressive.”
Softball
Softball has already gotten off to a 2-3 start during the DePaul Dome Tournament in Chicago from Feb. 11-13. Coach Jennifer Bagley Trotter takes over the program after longtime coach John Tschida announced he was stepping down in April.
The team finished 33-10 in their final MIAC season, leaving the conference with 25 championships. The Tommies went 9-2 in the postseason, qualifying for the 2021 College World series. They finished fifth in the country after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Depauw University.
“We have to do the small things right,” Trotter said. “There are a lot of really good things we took away from (the DePaul Dome) Tournament.”
The Tommies will take on seven new conference rivals: South Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, North Dakota, Western Illinois, Missouri-Kansas City and Omaha.
“We’ve never had this before,” senior infielder Nicole Pieper said. “In the MIAC, the schools were five or 10 minutes away.”
The team adds 10 first-year athletes to the roster and hopes to grow as a program, despite the longer trips.
“We can grow as a team,” Pieper said. “We’re able to bond on the bus and the plane and the hotels, which is something that we haven’t had the opportunity to do in the past.”
The Tommies’ next game is Feb. 25 in Louisiana against Louisiana Tech at the Mardi Gras Mambo tournament. Their first home game will be on April 9 at noon against South Dakota.
“This team is going to hold itself in high regard,” Trotter said. “They’re going to work hard and they’re going to be quality human beings.”
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.