TUSCON, Arizona – Outfielder Jimmy Dolan’s 12th inning single led the No. 2-ranked St. Thomas baseball team to a 4-3 extra-inning win over No. 21-ranked Linfield (Oregon) Friday evening at the Kino Sports Complex.

Behind the left arm of starting pitcher Eric Veglahn, the Tommies held the Wildcats to just one earned run through eight innings. Veglahn said it felt good to be on the mound again.

“It felt awesome to get back out there. The weather was awesome, and we got off to a hot start in the first inning. We hit a little slump, but I was impressed with the team. We’re really young, and I was impressed with what we did tonight,” Veghlan said.

St. Thomas didn’t waste any time and got on the board in the first inning with a RBI fielder’s choice. The Tommies thought they had scored two runs in the inning, but umpires ruled St. Thomas batted out of order, nullifying the second run. After the first inning the Tommies led 1-0.

Friday’s game was a rematch of last year’s first round of the Division-III College World Series. Veglahn baffled the Linfield batters in that game, throwing a complete game, two-hit shutout as the Tommies knocked off the defending national champion Wildcats. Veglahn continued his dominance of Linfield in Friday’s win, cruising through the first four innings of the game with help from the St. Thomas defense.

Linfield finally responded in the top of the fifth inning. A two-out double sparked the away team, and a St. Thomas throwing error helped the Wildcats tie the game at 1-1. Linfield recorded another two-out hit, giving the team its first lead of the game.

The Tommies threatened in the bottom of the inning with two base runners but failed to score and still trailed by one run after five innings of play.

St. Thomas showed off its defense in the next half inning to keep Linfield off the scoreboard. Shortstop Brady Johnson said the coaching staff always preaches defense first.

“We lost a lot of our hitters last year, so we knew coming back that pitching and defense would carry us. Today it showed,” Johnson said. “We knew that if we took care of defense, we would end up winning the game.”

Once again in the bottom of the seventh inning the Tommies were able to get multiple runners into scoring position. This time St. Thomas had the bases loaded with one out, but a double play ended the inning.

Linfield used the momentum gained on the inning-ending double play to create a spark offensively. The Wildcats recorded back-to-back hits to go ahead by two runs.

Tommie outfielder Ty Vincent found a pitch he liked out over the plate and drove it 400 feet over the fence in right-center to cut the deficit to one run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Pitcher Greg Clute came on in relief to pitch the ninth inning for St. Thomas. Clute was successful as he shut down the Wildcats in order.

Two batters hit by a pitch had the Tommies in position to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Outfielder Kelvin Stroik had a long plate appearance, fouling off several pitches before earning a walk to load the bases with one out. Trailing by one, Dolan came to bat with a chance to tie the game. He grounded the ball to second base but hustled to first to beat out the attempted double play. Dolan’s fielder’s choice tied the game at three in the bottom of the ninth inning and forced extra innings.

Clute continued to dominate on the mound for St. Thomas, shutting down Linfield.

Infielder Jake Steinbach pinch-hit in the top of the 12th inning and smacked a single up the middle to get on base. Steinback later advanced to second base on a passed ball. Another beaned batter and a flyout to left field gave the Tommies runners on first and third with two outs. Dolan, who tied the game in the ninth inning, once again came to the plate for St. Thomas in a high pressure situation.

Dolan said he did what the coaches told him to do and just put the ball in play.

“The coaches have been saying just put the ball in play since the beginning of the game, even if it’s a grounder or whatever,” Dolan said. “I saw two pitches that I didn’t like, and the third one I swung and it hit the lip of the grass and bounced over the shortstop and we won the game. Fluke play, but it works out in the end.”

Dolan’s single scored Steinbach and gave the Tommies the victory. Coach Chris Olean said he was proud of the way his team continued to battle throughout the game.

“My expectations for the season are to keep getting better each game as we play. We have a ton of talent, we had some mistakes early in the game and we had some execution issues, but that will get better as we go. If we continue to stick around, we’ll find a way,” Olean said.

The Tommies played again later on Friday night and once again used extra innings to defeat a nationally ranked opponent. St. Thomas defeated No. 13-ranked Concordia (Illinois) 6-5 on a twelfth inning RBI double off the bat of junior Cory Quinlan to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The Tommies will play five more games in Arizona and five games in Florida, concluding with a College World Series rematch from last year against No. 1-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater on March 25.

St. Thomas begins MIAC play on March 28 when it hosts St. Mary’s.

Travis Swan can be reached at swan9954@stthomas.edu.