MINNETONKA, Minn. – Left fielder Tim Kuzniar led the No. 1-seeded St. Thomas baseball team to a 6-1 win over No. 2-seeded Bethel University in the MIAC tournament semifinals going 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
St. Thomas (32-7, 18-2 MIAC), the defending MIAC champions, will play the winner between Bethel (22-11, 14-6 MIAC) and St. Mary’s, and will need only one win to claim the conference title as they are the only unbeaten team in the tournament. Though the title would be nice, coach Chris Olean said the team is just focusing on getting better in preparation for the national tournament.
“Again, it was kind of the story of the season where we win a game not playing as well as we can. It’s nice in a lot of ways … we talked about the fact (that) we’re going to be in a regional whether we win this or not,” Olean said. “To me it’s just building momentum, just trying to continue to play good ball, and the more wins you can streak together, the better off we’ll be in regionals.”
The highlight of the game, outside of Kuzniar’s stellar numbers at the plate, was pitcher Eric Veglahn. Veglahn picked up right where pitcher Colin Wendinger left off in Friday’s game, as both pitchers have thrown complete games in the MIAC playoffs.
“(Veglahn) threw a ton of strikes, stayed down in the zone, stayed in positive pitching counts and really just didn’t give them much to hit. His command was excellent,” Olean said. “He threw a complete game under 100 pitches. (That’s) pretty efficient.”
Veglahn improves to 7-0 on the season with a 1.84 ERA. The Royals only amassed five hits and one earned run in today’s contest, something Veglahn attributes to locating his fastball.
“I would definitely say my fastball (was effective). Coach was calling a lot (of pitches) today. I was able to hit my spots and able to put me in good pitcher’s counts,” Veglahn said. “Getting ahead is pretty big for me in my game.”
Kuzniar, the 2013 MIAC Most Valuable Player, is second in the conference in batting average, hitting .341. Kuzniar added to the Tommies’ offense in the fifth inning after first baseman Tyler Peterson lined an RBI double down the left field line to give St. Thomas a one-run lead. Kuzniar followed up with a double himself, driving in two runs, putting the Tommies up by three.
“I’ve been struggling up there lately, swinging at bad pitches, so I just tried to simplify everything today,” Kuzniar said.
Tensions ran high on the field all game long, possibly the result of the doubleheader between these two squads earlier this season. This escalated after three Tommies were hit by pitches in the eighth inning.
“We don’t like Bethel. We split with them early in the year, and we should’ve won. They beat us last year too, so they ruined our (unbeaten conference record) two years in a row,” Kuzniar said. “This game was huge.”
Peterson left this afternoon’s game after a collision, in the top of the eighth inning, with catcher J.D. Dorgan. Dorgan remained in the game for the Tommies, but Olean said he isn’t sure about Peterson’s status for tomorrow’s championship.
“We’ll see tomorrow. Again, given our situation, I don’t think we feel an absolute, pressing need to get him in there,” Olean said. “I know he’s going to want to play, but our goal is to get him healthy for next week. We’ll see how he is in the morning.”
The Tommies resume play at 11 a.m. tomorrow against the winner of Bethel and St. Mary’s.
Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.