University of St. Thomas Athletics
39-7
Baldwin Wallace
30-19
Close call, but Baseball gets Sat. win at Series
5/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By DOUG HENNES
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - The belt belongs to pitcher Jacob Nelson for at least a day, and catcher J.D. Dorgan couldn't be happier about it.
The belt -- a "World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship" knockoff -- is part of a new St. Thomas baseball tradition. One player receives the belt after each game, and Nelson was handed it Saturday night to honor three innings of scoreless relief in a 5-4 win over Baldwin-Wallace in the NCAA Division III World Series.
Another player grabbed the belt and gave it to Dorgan, who had stroked his 200th career hit, but he gave it right back to Nelson.
"Jacob definitely earned it," Dorgan said. "He worked hard out there tonight, and he had nasty stuff."
The nasty stuff came at the right time for the No. 6-ranked Tommies (39-7), who rallied twice to advance to the third-round winners' bracket game at 7 p.m. Sunday against UW-Whitewater, a 9-3 winner over Cortland State. Another win will put St. Thomas into the championship game on Tuesday.
Nelson took the mound in the sixth inning after the Tommies tied the game at 3-3. He gave up singles in each of the next three innings but struck out two and didn't allow a Baldwin Wallace runner past second base.
"My heart was pumping like crazy when I went in," said Nelson, an Anoka senior who made his ninth relief appearance and picked up his first win. "I just wanted to do my job - keep runners off base and have my team put runs on the board. I had a great defense behind me and held on."
"Jacob did a phenomenal job," Coach Chris Olean said. "That's one of the better clutch performances we've had this year from a reliever."
The Tommies did put more runs on the board - one in the sixth and one in the seventh - to go up 5-3 and survived a ninth-inning scare to extend their winning streak to 14 games. It was their 10th comeback win this season, and they are 13-4 record in one- or two-run games. They also kept their record in first- and second-round World Series games perfect at 12-0.
Baldwin Wallace leads early
Baldwin-Wallace, from the Ohio Athletic Conference, outhit the Tommies 13-8, put runners on base every inning and held leads of 1-0 and 3-1. But St. Thomas pitchers Colin Wendinger, Nelson and Tommy Danczyk stranded 11 to keep the game close.
The unranked Yellow Jackets (30-19) took a 1-0 lead in the second. Wendinger walked the leadoff batter, who went to second on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on a two-out single. St. Thomas tied the game in the third on singles by Ben Podobinski, Waylon Bemboom and Tim Kuzniar.
Baldwin-Wallace jumped ahead 3-1 in the fifth on three hits off Wendinger, but the Tommies again tied the game in the bottom of inning on a Podobinski walk, Jack Hogan triple and a wild pitch.
The Tommies used small ball to take their first lead, 4-3, in the bottom of the sixth. Brady Johnson was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a Nick Degen sacrifice bunt and to third on a Sam Miller fly ball, and scored on a Podobinski single to right. Podobinski finished with a walk and three singles and now has 198 hits in his career.
The two rallies and the way the Tommies went ahead impressed Olean, who praised the way they kept clawing away.
"We found a way to answer," he said. "Guys kept stepping up, and if it's a different guy every day, no problem. ... Nobody panicked and the guys continued to play their game."
St. Thomas extended its lead to 5-3 in the seventh. With two out, Dorgan singled to left, stole second and came home when the Baldwin Wallace first baseman threw away a Kelvin Stroik grounder.
The Yellow Jackets made it interesting in the ninth. Danczyk struck out the first batter but gave up three straight singles and a run to cut the Tommies' lead to 5-4. He struck out the next hitter and got the final out on a grounder for his 11th save of the season.
Dorgan became the 11th MIAC hitter with 200 or more career hits and joined five Tommies on the list. Jake Mauer leads the St. Thomas (and MIAC) group with 243 hits (1998-2001) and the others are Tim Kuzniar (221, 2011-present), Steve Pignato (208, 1994-1997), Tom Carroll (201, 2000-2003) and Brett Olson (200, 2002-2005).
Click here for box score:
http://www.ncaa.com/game/baseball/d3/2014/05/24/baldwin-wallace-st-thomas-mn
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Nelson, Jacob (1-1)
L: Cory Waite (7-3)
S: Danczyk, Tommy (11)
Batting:
2B: Kyle Chontos 1
RBI: Kyle Chontos 1 ; Hunter Handel 1 ; Eric Murphy 1 ; Alex Green 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mark Zimmerman 2 ; Kyle Chontos 1 ; John Taylor 1
SB: Jerry Scholle 1 ; Alex Green 1
CS: Hunter Handel 1
Batting:
3B: Hogan, Jack 1
RBI: Podobinski, Ben 1 ; Hogan, Jack 1 ; Kuzniar, Tim 1
SH: Degen, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Podobinski, Ben 2 ; Hogan, Jack 1 ; Dorgan, J.D. 1 ; Johnson, Brady 1
SB: Dorgan, J.D. 1 ; Stroik, Kelvin 1
CS: Podobinski, Ben 1
HBP: Stroik, Kelvin 1 ; Johnson, Brady 1 ; Degen, Nick 1
