04/20/07

Five different St. Scholastica pitchers combined to no-hit the Purple Storm from Crown College on Friday afternoon at Wade Stadium in St. Scholastica’s 21-0 win.

The game was the home opener for the Saints (18-4, 6-0 UMAC) and first of a three-game set with Crown (2-7, 0-2) that continues with a doubleheader starting at Noon on Saturday, April 21 at Wade.

Saints pitchers allowed only two base-runners over seven innings, one on an error and the other via a walk. Jake Gaub (3-0), who came on in relief of starter Chad Weiss, picked up the win for the Saints.

Combined, Weiss, Gaub, Steve Gerten, Dan Lanari, and Keith Ritsche surrendered just that one walk and recorded 13 of 27 outs by a strikeout.

At the plate, ‘see it, hit it’ was certainly the theme of the game as 14 different batters collected 21 hits for the Saints.

After a quiet first inning that saw the Saints score only one run off Crown starter Rocky Donnatelle (0-1), the Saints exploded for six runs in the second, and five more in the third, sending at least nine batters to the plate in each inning.

Mike Lewis lofted a long fly over the left field wall that brought in lead-off batter Sean Claugherty to open the scoring in the second. After the next batter, Darin Carlson, singled to left, Brandon Swartz slammed a ball over the left-center wall for another two-run homerun in the inning.

Blake Eller, Ritsche, Kyle Wojtysiak, Lewis, Carlson, and Kyle Rizzi each had two hits in the game for the Saints.

Swartz led the team with three RBI while Steve Kraushaar scored three runs for the Saints.

In all, the Saints used 22 different players. And of the five pitchers, only two, Gaub and Gerten threw more than an inning (two each) in the win.