[slidepress gallery=”110409_BASEBALL”]

St. Thomas fans walked away happy Saturday evening as the Tommies swept conference rival Bethel (9-9, 2-4 in the MIAC) in a doubleheader at home 5-2, 7-3.

The Tommies (8-11, 4-2) got solid hitting and clutch pitching to earn a much-needed sweep in their first home games of the season.

Coach Chris Olean said his team had players step up today, and his hitters were able to keep the ball on the ground.

“We put the ball in play and kept it out of the air today a lot better than we had in the past,” Olean said. “That’s been our big problem up until this point, that we hit a lot of fly outs.”

In the first game, catcher John Dorgan took Bethel’s Chris Harrell deep with a home run over the left field wall to give the Tommies a 1-0 lead. The runs continued to come that inning as the Tommies scored three more to build a 4-0 lead.

“I just tried to get on base any way I can, and the pitcher was leaving the fastballs up pretty high,” Dorgan said. “I’m just glad the people behind me were able to keep getting hits to lead to a big inning.”

The Tommies maintained their four-run lead until the fifth inning, when Bethel started to come back. A couple of well-placed hits, plus an error in the Tommie outfield, brought the Royals to within two runs.

The score remained 4-2 until the bottom of the sixth inning when second baseman Charles Bruchu hit a solo home run, the Tommies’ second of the day. The home run made the score 5-2, and the Tommies shutout the Royals in the seventh to seal the victory.

Gapinski pitched a complete game and gave up only four hits to earn his second win of the season. Olean said Gapinski’s solid performance was a key factor in Saturday’s win.

“The thing that Bryce does is that he doesn’t beat himself,” Olean said. “He usually works down in the zone and doesn’t walk anybody. Bryce did a good job of pumping strikes, and keeping the ball down.”

Tommies down early in second game

In the second game, freshman pitcher Zach Franz gave up three runs to the Royals early, including a towering home run from catcher Erik Anderson.

“I would have loved to leave my starter in in the second game longer,” Olean said. “But in a seven-inning game like this [it] is so condensed, and if you get down 3-0 nothing, you just don’t have time to come back.”

But the Tommies responded and overcame their 3-0 deficit. In the bottom of the third inning, Bruchu hit a two-run triple to bring the Tommies within one run.

“That was huge because if we fold there after three innings, that’s trouble,” Bruchu said. “In a short seven-inning game, it might be tough to get the bats going if we don’t get that hit.”

In the next inning, the Tommies had their second four-run inning of the day, establishing a 6-3 lead going into the fifth inning. During the inning, Bruchu drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home a run. He said patience is crucial in that situation.

“I’m an aggressive hitter, and there was a couple of hitter’s counts in that at-bat,” Bruchu said. “I just had to focus and make sure it was a strike before I swung.”

The Tommies’ pitching continued to struggle in the fifth and sixth innings when three freshman pitchers, Franz, Mark Ulrich and Jared Dehmer, walked a combined eight batters.

“It’s a problem, but again, we just don’t have a lot of rope to let them go,” Olean said. “Those freshman have some of the best stuff on our team, and we just need to let them develop.”

After walking the first two batters in the top of the sixth, Olean put in senior Kris Edwards to close the game, and he did just that. Edwards didn’t allow another base runner for the remainder of the game and has now pitched 11 consecutive scoreless innings.

“Kris is carrying us right now from a pitching standpoint,” Olean said. “His last three outings have been outstanding, but I’ll have to be careful with how much I’m using him.”

The Tommies took advantage of several Bethel miscues throughout the doubleheader. In the first game, the Tommies scored three extra runs after a throwing error by Royals’ second baseman Esteban Abbey. In the second game, a botched pick-off attempt brought center fielder Matt McQuillan all the way to third base. He later scored on a passed ball.

“Every time another team makes a couple mistakes in the field, you have to make them pay for it,” Bruchu said. “You can be assured that they will do the same if you make mistakes.”

This was the Tommies’ first sweep of the year. The team will next play a doubleheader at Hamline (5-9, 2-2) on Tuesday, April 12.

Dan Cook can be reached at Cook9156@stthomas.edu.