St. Thomas baseball battled back from being down early but fell short in an extra inning, losing 6-5 to finish their three-game series against conference opponent Northern Colorado on Sunday.
The weekend series kicked off with Friday’s game one being rescheduled due to lightning in the forecast. However, the second game was still played later in the afternoon and set a record for the longest game in Summit League history, lasting for 21 innings.
The record-length battle, which spanned both Friday and Saturday, ended with a final score of 8-7 favoring Northern Colorado. The Golden Bears scored the final run with bases loaded after a balk was called on Tommie senior pitcher Nolan Kemp.
“That one’s really tough. But we got the bases loaded somehow, so that’s our fault for putting ourselves in that spot,” UST coach Chris Olean said Sunday.
Game two of the series began Saturday evening, and the Tommies dominated, leading 11-3 by the end of the eighth inning. In the top of the ninth, the game was suspended since Koch Diamond does not have a light system for night games. The Tommies secured the 11-3 victory in game two Sunday afternoon.
In Sunday’s second game, the Golden Bears started hot, grabbing a 3-0 lead with two runs in the first inning and another in the second. St. Thomas answered in the bottom of the second, cutting the lead to one after junior Tanner Recchio and senior Joe Roder each smacked RBI singles.
Recchio continued to impact the game moments later, stealing third base and capitalizing on a throwing error to tie the game at 3-3. The Tommies stole four bases in Sunday’s game, over double their average.
“Most of their pitchers don’t do a great job of holding guys on, they’re pretty slow, so that’s a spot we thought we could take up a notch,” Olean said.
Both teams remained dormant offensively until the seventh inning, when Tommie sophomore Lucas McNellis whacked a double to bring home Roder, who had also doubled earlier in the inning, awarding St. Thomas a 4-3 lead.
Northern Colorado tried to respond in the eighth, loading the bases with just one out. However, UST senior pitcher Max Skilbeck and the Tommie infield escaped the jam without allowing a run.
The Golden Bears woke up in the ninth when junior Brandon Sanchez launched a two-run homer over UST junior right fielder Owen Bond’s right shoulder.
When hope seemed lost for the Tommies in the bottom of the ninth with one out, St. Thomas junior Easton Tritcher tied the game at 5-5 with a solo home run that had the UST dugout going ballistic.
Northern Colorado sophomore Ethan Mooser put the Bears up by one in the top of the tenth after his double to shallow left field knocked in junior Logan Pruski for the Bears’ sixth run. The Tommies were able to get two runners on base in the bottom of the tenth, but a couple of caught fly balls sealed the win for the Bears.
“From an offensive standpoint, we’re starting to look how we should. But at the end of the day, you still want to take more in these two or three game series like this,” Olean said.
After the scheduling chaos and extra inning games, St. Thomas’ record moves to 7-26 overall. The Tommies rank fifth in Summit League standings.
“There’s been a couple times now, like that whole series, where we were a pitch away in two of the three games that we lost. Just that’s the thing we have got to execute. We have to finish in the future,” Olean said.
After their series against Northern Colorado in St. Paul, the Tommies embark on a road trip to face the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers on Tuesday and the Northwestern Wildcats on Wednesday.
Owen Bell can be reached at bell9606@stthomas.edu.
