05/16/07

Armed with one of the best and perhaps deepest pitching staffs in Division III baseball themselves, the Saints faced perhaps one of the best D-III pitchers Wednesday afternoon and collected a pair of homeruns off Jordan Zimmerman for three runs in the NCAA Midwest Regional opener in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

Unfortunately the St. Scholastica (36-7) defense uncharacteristically kicked up six errors in the field which helped UW-Stevens Point (29-14) score nine unearned runs in an 11-3 victory.

The loss sends the Saints into the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament where on Thursday at Noon they will face UW-Oshkosh, 5-1 loser's to St Thomas, in an elimination game. Stevens Point plays the loser of the Ripon vs. St. Olaf game in a second round match-up Thursday afternoon.

Saints starter Mark Moriarty allowed only two hits in the first two innings but found himself behind 2-0 after Stevens Point scored an unearned run in each inning.

One of the most unlikely long-ball heroes cut the lead in half in the top of the third, though, as shortstop Kyle Wojtysiak hit the first homerun of his collegiate career to lead off the inning.

Moriarty only surrendered one hit in the bottom half of the inning but walked the next two batters to load the bases, eventually giving up his first earned run of the game on a sacrifice fly that made it 3-1 in favor of the top-seeded Pointers.

If the homer from "Wojo" was a surprise, the two out, one on, bomb that catcher Mike Lewis hit to tie the game at 3-3 in the top of the fourth was not. Lewis' team-leading sixth homerun brought in Brandon Swartz who had singled with one out in the inning.

Moriarty had a relatively easy fourth on the mound for the Saints and worked out of a jam in the fifth by striking out the last batters of the inning with runners at second and third. He gave way to ace reliever Adian Kummet at the beginning of the sixth with positive results, a three up, three down inning.

And then the wheels fell off.

A lead-off solo homerun from Zimmerman gave UWSP a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh and then the Pointers scored five more runs off Kummet -- all unearned -- keyed by two errors and two wild pitches.

Eric Hagen pitched the final inning for the Saints and he, too, was victimized by defensive lapses as a one-out error led to a pair of Stevens Point runs.

It just wasn't the Saints' day right from the start. UMAC Player of the Year Blake Eller hit a one out single to left field in the first inning but was picked off first base for the third out of the inning.

St. Scholastica put the lead-off runner on in the second via a Swartz single but three Zimmerman strikeouts ended that threat.

Even a pair of walks to start off the top of the ninth didn't produce anything as a double-play grounder ended the threat...and the game.

Kummet (4-2) took the loss for the Saints despite allowing only one earned run of the six the Pointers scored in the fateful sixth inning. Zimmerman (8-0) remained undefeated on the season for Stevens Point with the win.