Mon. NCAA Baseball: Toms win 3-1, in Tuesday's finals

W, 3-1
Carthage (M), May 25, 2009

Freshman RHP John Licht scattered seven hits and won his second NCAA elimination game in 11 days as St. Thomas edged Carthage 3-1 in Monday's noon baseball game at the Division III College World Series in Appleton, Wis.

The Tommies (39-13) advance to Tuesday's championship round and are assured of a top-two finish out of 381 teams in Division III baseball. The Toms have gone to the Tuesday championship round in all four trips to the World Series as they previously took second in 1999 and 2000 and won the championship in 2001.

Wooster, which topped UST 3-0 on Sunday night, moved to 4-0 this weekend with Monday's 11-7 win over Chapman. That leaves just two teams left, and the Toms and Wooster play at 11 a.m. Tuesday with St. Thomas needing a win to force a 2:30 rematch.

In the NCAA regional, Licht kept the Toms alive as he shutout UW-Stevens Point on May 15 with a six-hiiter with no walks and nine strikeouts. On Monday, he had just one walk and six strikeouts and allowed the leadoff man on base in just two innings. Those were just his fourth and fifth collegiate starts, and the first and second time he worked longer than six innings.

PHOTO: Matt McQuillan, shown at left in Saturday's win, had a clutch RBI single in the seventh inning. (Larry Radloff, D3Sports.com photo)

St. Thomas pitchers have a 2.02 ERA in 98 innings over 10 NCAA playoff games, including Licht's 0.50 in 18 innings. The Toms have held opponents to four or less runs in 35 of 51 games this season and are 30-5 in those games. 

Coach Dennis Denning's team had no errors for the sixth time in the last seven NCAA playoff games. It was just the third time in 13 games this season that the Toms were outhit but won.

UST had just five hits but was led again by junior Matt Olson, who ran his hitting streak to nine with a triple and an infield single. Olson cored twice and now has reached base in 39 consecutive games. In his last nine NCAA playoff games, Olson is batting .486 (17-for-35) with 13 runs scored. He's 8-for-15 with seven runs in four games thus far in Appleton.

Drew Cremisino had an RBI single to score Olson in the fourth inning and end the Toms' 16-inning scoring drought. In the sixth inning, UST pushed its lead to 2-0 as Olson had a one-out triple and scored on Brian Schmitz' single. In the seventh, Dan Leslie reached on an error, was bunted to second base and scored on Matt McQuillan's RBI single.

Carthage (38-9) scored on a two-out double in the sixth inning on a close play at the plate. John Lequia was 3-for-4 and scored the Redmen' lone run.

Carthage freshman Andy Pucher started and allowed four hits, five walks and a hit batsman over 6 1-3 innings.

St. Thomas now has 10 postseason wins for just the third time in program history and tied a school record with its eighth NCAA playoff victory. St. Thomas improved to 14-4 in May. In the four May defeats the Toms have scored a total of three runs.

St. Thomas has secured the school's third top-five NCAA team finish of 2009. The Tommies went 30-1 and tied for fifth nationally in men's basketball, and took third in the NCAA men's outdoor track and field meet.

PHOTO: Matt McQuillan, shown above in Saturday's win, had a clutch RBI single in the seventh inning. (Larry Radloff, D3Sports.com photo)

Click here for d3baseball.com story:

http://www.d3baseball.com/

Click here for UST-Carthage box score:

http://www.tommiesports.com/bsbl/stats/5-25-bas.htm

Click here to access Wooster-Chapman live video:

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media=128542

Click here to access live stats:

http://www.titans.uwosh.edu/livestats3/xlive.htm