St. Thomas Baseball Championship Day Notes — Tuesday May 26
–NEXT UP: The Tommies (39-13) play Wooster (Ohio) (43-9) at 11 a.m. today and need a victory to force a 2:30 p.m. title rematch. Wooster is 4-0 at the national tournament and has outscored foes 39-9, including Sunday’s 3-0 win over the Tommies. The Scots can capture the program’s first NCAA baseball title with one victory. This is their second appearance in the title game, as they took second in 1997.
–FORECAST: From UST vice president Doug Hennes who’s been on-site all week in Appleton: “Today’s biggest unknown is the weather. After four sunny days in the Appleton area, we’re looking at overcast skies, a 70 percent chance of rain and temps in the mid to high 50s today. It started to sprinkle in the early-morning hours and the ground is wet, though no rain is falling at this time.” Rain is also in the forecast for Wednesday, so it’s unlikely the games would be delayed.
– WINNER: UST has beaten every team on their schedule at least on once except for one team. Wooster is the only team on UST’s schedule who is unbeaten against the Tommies.
–SURVIVOR: It’s the 115th day of the Division III baseball season since the Feb. 1 start of practices, and 86 days since the Tommies started their season with a March 1 Metrodome doubleheader. Of the 381 teams in Division III, the Scots and Tommies are the last two standing.
–AT STAKE: The Tommies need one win to post their second 40-win baseball season in school history, and two wins to claim the school’s second NCAA baseball championship. It’s the seventh time in 11 seasons that St. Thomas has played in an NCAA title game in baseball or softball. In baseball, they took second in 1999 and 2000 and won the 2001 title. In softball, they took first in 2004 and 2005 and placed second in 2006.
–TITLE TALK: In all sports, St. Thomas has 12 national team titles and has nine NCAA runner-up finishes, in eight different sports, all in the last 28 seasons.
–WORLD SERIES SLATE: The Tommies have been in the CWS in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2009 and now have a combined record of 14-6.
–POSTSEASON: St. Thomas is 70-36 in postseason play in the Dennis Denning era, including a 43-22 record in NCAA playoff games since 1998. The Tommies have played in the regional finals seven times and national finals four times.
–UPDATE: St. Thomas junior RHP Matt Schuld was announced today as a third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, one of 17 Division III players honored. He has a 3.70 gpa in Financial Management. He’s one of four Division III players named both All-American and AcademicAll-American for 2009.
–PITCHING OPTIONS: Today, Tommie Coach Dennis Denning likely will choose among these four to start against Wooster — junior All-American RHP Matt Schuld, junior RHP Brandon Stone, sophomore RHP Kris Edwards or freshman LHP Bryce Gapinski.
–SCHULD: In four career NCAA playoff games, Schuld is 2-1 with a 1.95 ERA. Schuld is 18-3 in 24 career starts. He’s 11-1 overall this season and needs one victory to break a school record for seasons wins. He’s 8-0 this season vs. nationally- or regionally ranked Chapman, St. Scholastica, St. Olaf, UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh. He also beat Division I Minnesota as he allowed three runs in six innings of a 6-3 win. In March 2008, he threw sfive no-hit innings and six shutout innings vs. Trinity (Ct.) but allowed two runs in the seventh before leaving in a 7-2 loss. At the 2008 regional, he allowed two runs in 10 innings in an extra-inning loss to UW-Whitewater. He threw 168 pitches in the first 12 innings May 13 in a 17-inning win over UW-Stevens Point (three earned runs), then came back on two days rest and threw 120 pitches over seven innings (two earned runs) in an elimination-game win over St. Olaf.
–STONE: One of the surprise players of 2009, Stone worked just six innings in 2007 and 2008 but was UST’s No. 2 starter most of this season and is 2-2 with a 2.79 ERA, 44 Ks and 13 walks. He missed the regional with soreness but is feeling better. He retired all four batters he faced in a save vs. Minnesota; retired all three batters he faced for a save vs. Augsburg; and retired six of the seven batters he faced for a save in a May 9 conference playoff win over St. Olaf. That May 9 appearannce was his last outing.
–GAPINSKI: The freshman lefty is 4-0 in May and 3-0 in the postseason with wins over Carleton in the conference playoffs and St. Scholastica and Shenandoah in the NCAA playoffs. He’s 7-2 overall in 10 starts with a 3.32 ERA.
–EDWARDS: The righty is 1-0 with an 0.69 ERA in 13 innings this season (six appearances). He was 4-1 as a freshman at 2006 for UW-Whitewater before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He transferred to St. Thomas, sat out 2007 and 2008, and pitched just a few innings before he came on in the 13th inning in the NCAA regional opener vs. UW-Stevens Point. Edwards threw five shutout innings and struck out seven and the Toms won in the bottom of the 17th with a walkoff homer by Taylor Rahm. He pitched the final two innings vs. Wooster on Sunday night.
–POWER SURGE: The Tommie offense started slowly this postseason. In their first seven games of the conference and NCAA playoffs, UST went 4-3 with a .245 batting average, 35 runs, 62 hits, 18 walks in 71 innings. In the last seven games (six victories), the Toms are batting .303, with 50 runs, 77 hits in 254 AB, and 19 walks in 63 innings.
–ERA: St. Thomas pitchers come into Tuesday with an 2.02 ERA in 10 NCAA playoff games over 98 innings. The Toms have held opponents to four or less runs in 35 of 51 games this season and are 30-5 in those games.
–DEFENSE: The Toms have not made an error in six of the last seven games. On the season, their outfielders have one error combined in 231 chances. Senior 2B Louie Salmen has just three errors in 213 chances; junior 1B Tom Wippler has just two errors in 413 chances.
–GOOD MONTH: The Toms are 14-4 in May. They won their first six of the month, had a
2-3 mid-month slump, but have won six of their last seven.
–WHO’S HOT: Sophomore leadoff hitter Matt McQuillan has reached base in 13 of 14 career NCAA playoff games. McQuillan has hit safely in 22 of his last 24 games and he’s batting 13-for-30 in the last seven… junior Matt Olson had now reached base in 39 consecutive games, and in his last nine NCAA playoff games, Olson is batting .486 (17-for-35) with 13 runs scored. He’s 8-for-15 with seven runs in four games thus far in Appleton.
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