St. Thomas baseball took two wins against Carleton College Wednesday at Koch Diamond, projecting into first place in the MIAC and increasing its winning streak to four.
The Tommies’ bats went quiet in the first game after the third inning, but senior pitcher Graham Laubscher’s one run, complete game withheld the Knights. Those bats caught fire in the second game as the Tommies pushed ten runs across the plate and mercy ruled the Knights 10-0 after seven innings.
“The first game we did everything we needed to do,” said senior designated hitter Josh Thorp. “Then we came out a little slow, kinda lulling our way through, then we buried them like we should’ve.”
Game 1
Senior pitcher Graham Laubscher tied his season high with 14 strikeouts, pitching all seven innings and only giving up three hits. The run came in the top of the third when sophomore catcher Aaron Berkowitz homered for the Knights.
“Everything was working,” said Laubscher. “My offspeed stuff was really good today, so I just mixed pitches.”
All four of the Tommies’ runs were scored in the first three innings, led by Thorp who responded to Berkowitz’s home run with one of his own, driving in Porter and sparking a three-run third inning for the Tommies.
The Tommies also tore up the basepaths, stealing six bases off of Carleton first-year pitcher Ben Steel.
Game 2
The Tommies came out of the gate strong in the second game, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. The bats faded afterwards, going scoreless for the next three innings before scoring eight runs in the final three innings, ending the game off a 10-0 mercy rule.
“We just turned a switch there towards the end,” said coach Chris Olean. “It’s good to see that they can turn it on, but from a consistency standpoint, I’d like to see a little bit better at bats.”
Red-shirt first-year pitcher Tyson Stritesky went 3 and 2/3 innings, allowing four walks, three hits and no runs. First-year pitcher Jack Blesch claimed the win out of the pen, striking out two and allowing one hit over 3 and 1/3 innings.
The Tommies are scheduled to play a double header against Augsburg University on May 1 at Koch Diamond starting at 2 p.m.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.