Saints Clinch UMAC

The Saint Scholastica Saints Baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Bethany Lutheran College by defeating the Vikings 5-0 and 3-2 in front of 85 dedicated fans at Wade Stadium. The wins pushed the Saints record to 31-3 overall and 18-0 in the UMAC, which clinched the regular season UMAC title once again for St. Scholastica.

The Saints put the ball in good hands to start game one of the doubleheader when they sent junior right-hander Mark Moriarty to the hill in search of his team leading 7th win. The Saints were able to provide all the runs Moriarty would need in the first inning when Keith Ritsche drove in Chad Weiss for the first run of the game. The Saints later added one run in the third and three more in the fifth giving Moriarty a 5-0 lead to work with. This was more than enough for the dominating pitcher. Moriarty worked six innings of shut-out baseball while scattering three hits and striking out 10 Vikings. Offensively, Ritsche had two RBIs, Luke Olin and Mike Lewis each added one RBI, and Brandon Swartz finished 2 for 3 in the game.

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In game two, the Saints sent Chad Weiss to the mound, who pitched a solid six innings of three hit ball, allowing two runs, only one earned, in picking up his third win of the season. In the seventh, Weiss was releived by freshman phenom Adian Kummet who worked a scoreless inning, while striking out two, in picking up his second save of the season.

The Saints scored all three of their runs in the first inning when Daryl Fuchihara hit a one-out double. Luke Olin then struck a single that put runners on the corners for Keith Ritsche who knocked in both runners with a triple. Brandon Swartz then hit a deep fly ball that allowed Ritsche to tag up from third driving the Saints lead to 3-0.

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St. Scholastica will take to the field again next Friday and Saturday against the University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars in their final UMAC games of the year. Then again on Sunday in a huge match-up against the 10th ranked St. Thomas Tommies of the MIAC. Make sure to make it down the the Wade next weekend for end of the Saints regular season as they try to stay hot into the play-offs!