Shortstop Brady Johnson follows through on a swing. St. Thomas played a doubleheader against Bethel University Wednesday afternoon in St. Paul. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Outfielder Jake Smith finishes a swing in a game against Bethel last season. Smith had one of St. Thomas’ four hits in Thursday’s playoff loss against St. Mary’s.(Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
(Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Miller anticipates the play. Miller scored an unearned run on an RBI from designated hitter Ben Waltz in the bottom of the third inning. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Catcher Keller Knoll follows through on a strong swing at home plate. Despite flying out in the bottom of the sixth and eighth innings on Wednesday, Knoll has scored 15 runs this season. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Pitcher Eric Veglahn hurls a pitch toward home plate. St. Thomas has now dropped five straight games after being swept by Bethel Wednesday. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
The St. Thomas men’s baseball team (17-13 overall, 8-6 MIAC) dropped two home games to Bethel University (24-5 overall, 12-2 MIAC) on a windy Wednesday evening at Koch Diamond. After a close 5-4 loss in game one, the Tommies jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game two before giving up 8 unanswered runs, giving the team its fifth consecutive loss.
Junior designated hitter Ben Waltz went 3 for 7 at the plate with one RBI and 1 run scored and said he believes the team needs to work more as a unit.
“I think we came out in the first game with good energy, and it just came down to a couple execution things,” Waltz said. “In the second game, we didn’t have the energy that we had in the first. We just need to do a better job of coming together and fighting as a team.”
While coach Chris Olean said the team played well for certain stretches of the twinbill, he is still disappointed with the results.
“We were in both ball games,” Olean said. “We’re kind of in a funk. We’re trying to find the right combination of guys to play and trying to fight our way out of it.”
Senior relief pitcher Greg Clute came out of the bullpen in the fifth inning of game two and pitched 4.1 innings, giving up one earned run. He said the team needs to work harder to avoid making costly mistakes.
“I think we just need to have more fight every single inning,” Clute said. “We can’t take any innings off. Against any team in this conference, if you just take an inning off, it can hurt you.”
Olean said Clute, the senior captain, has been big for them in certain situations all season.
“The biggest thing with (Clute) is that he wants the baseball,” Olean said. “He likes being in those tough situations and not much bothers him. He’s done a really nice job the entire season of coming in and sort of stopping the bleeding.”
Although they were ranked No. 2 in the nation to start the season, the Tommies have struggled in conference play and have now lost five straight games. Despite that, the team still has hope heading down the stretch.
“There are quite a few of us that are kind of pressing to do too much, and we just need to understand that baseball is a team game,” Waltz said.
“We’re searching for the answer right now,” Olean said. “There is some adversity. We do have a lot of new faces and challenges. We just have to keep fighting.”
But the Tommies still have time to turn things around. The team has seven games left until the MIAC conference tournament begins May 8, and it will continue its push to the postseason next Tuesday when it hosts a doubleheader against Carleton.
“We just have to find what makes us tick,” Clute said. “Because we’re a little stagnant right now, but we have to get better. If we can find a way to play with some fire, we can absolutely still do something this season.”
Andrew Frentz can be reached at fren2218@stthomas.edu.