The St. Thomas baseball team began its season on a positive note Tuesday, rallying to win its first game of the season 6-2 against Wisconsin-Stevens Point as part of a doubleheader after trailing 2-0 at US Bank Stadium.
Game two of the doubleheader was halted with the Tommies leading 7-3 in the sixth inning due to the five hour time limit. The teams will complete the game sometime in March when both will be in Florida at the same time.
St. Thomas coach Chris Olean liked how his team dealt with the adversity of the season opener.
“When you play the first game of the year, you really don’t know what you can do yet,” Olean said. “When you’re down, you don’t know if you can come back because you don’t know what you have in you.”
In the first game, pitcher Ryan Zimmerman led the way for the Tommies, tossing a seven inning complete game, allowing five hits and two runs.
The Pointers scored the first two runs of the game in the third inning, but the Tommies avoided more damage when Zimmerman got Stevens Point third baseman Tommy Duddleston to pop out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
“The big thing that I was thinking was that I needed to keep the game in reach,” Zimmerman said. “I really just had to flush everything that had happened and focus on that one at-bat.”
Stevens Point did not have a runner reach second base after the third inning.
“(Zimmerman) really grinded through it,” Olean said. “It looked like we were going to have to pull him and he kept saying, ‘Give me a shot, give me a shot,’ and he battled through it and threw a great game.”
Third baseman Chad Clute and second baseman Zach Gottfredsen led the Tommie offense, each contributing two hits and a run scored.
In the sixth inning, Clute singled down the left field line and Tommie designated hitter Hunter Hart scored from second to tie the game 2-2.
One batter later, the Tommies took the lead when, with runners on first and second, Gottfredsen hit a groundball to Pointer second baseman Clint Rose, who flipped it to shortstop William Iloncaie who threw the ball away while attempting a double play, allowing Tommie left fielder Sam Cobbs to score putting the Tommies ahead 3-2.
Catcher Logan Kohorst singled to score Gottfredsen later in the inning.
The Tommies tacked on runs in the seventh behind RBIs by first baseman Mark Handberg and Cobbs, giving St. Thomas a 6-2 lead, which would ultimately be the final score.
“Our guys had better at-bats as the game went on,” Olean said. “They didn’t have different approaches but they just got more comfortable with the new environment.”
Zimmermann hopes the Tommies can build off the win.
“It was important to start off with a good win and some momentum heading into the season,” Zimmerman said.
Unlike game one, the Tommies struck first in game two, scoring four times in the second inning.
Two of the Tommie second inning runs came on hits by outfielders Jake Smith and Josh Thorp.
Thorp’s RBI single was his first collegiate hit.
The Pointers rallied to make the score 4-3 in the top of the third, but catcher Anthony Winters had an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-3.
St. Thomas tacked on two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Clute lined a double to left center, scoring Cobbs and Hart to push the lead to 7-3.
Henry DeCaster started game two on the hill for the Tommies, throwing five innings, giving up four hits and three runs.
Caleb Fernholz pitched a scoreless sixth inning before the game was halted.
“We’re not done yet,” Olean said, chuckling. “We seem to be in good shape.”
Taylor Smith can be reached at smit9660@stthomas.edu.