Baseball falls to St. Scholastica in NCAA opener

Despite a gritty performance by pitcher Steve Maher, the top-seeded St. Thomas baseball team fell to St. Scholastica 1-0 Wednesday, in the opening round of the Midwest Regional of the NCAA tournament in Whitewater, Wis.

With the loss, the Tommies face a must-win scenario for the rest of the double-elimination regional. St. Thomas will play the loser of the No. 2-seed Wis.-Stevens Point/No. 5-seed Benedictine (Ill.) game at noon Thursday.

Pitcher Steve Maher (Courtesy of tommiesports.com)
Pitcher Steve Maher (Courtesy of tommiesports.com)

The Tommies struggled to find the timely hit they needed all game, leaving nine runners on base.

Catcher J.D. Dorgan had a solid day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a hit by pitch. Also contributing for the Tommies was center fielder Ben Podobinski, going 1-for-3 with a walk.

The Tommies committed three errors, including a crucial throwing error in the seventh to give the Saints their lone run of the game.

St. Thomas rallied in the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back hits by Dorgan and third baseman Jack Hogan, but the team didn’t score.

Maher threw eight and 1/3 innings, allowing only one unearned run and striking out three.

Kyle Jonas can be reached at jona7984@stthomas.edu.