Mavericks Look to Keep Things Going at St. Thomas

Friday, April 5

St. Paul, Minn.

3 p.m.

Omaha

St. Thomas

Photo by: Garrett Hawkins

Mavericks Look to Keep Things Going at St. Thomas

Apr 4, 2024 | Baseball

game notes

Leading Off
The Mavericks (6-19, 4-5) look to build off last week's momentum as they hit the road again for a three-game series at St. Thomas (9-11, 4-1) this weekend.

Upcoming Schedule
Friday: 3 p.m. at St. Thomas at Koch Diamond
Saturday: 1 p.m. at St. Thomas at Koch Diamond
Sunday: 1 p.m. at St. Thomas at Koch Diamond

Around the Horn

Omaha won its first home series against Oral Roberts since 2018 after taking two of three from them thanks to a dominant weekend from the pitching staff.
Charlie Bell and Joe Hackmann both turned in one of their best performances of the season on Thursday, with Bell firing a season-high 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts and no earned runs, while Hackmann went 2.1 scoreless as well.
Caleb Riedel and Harrison Kreiling were even more dominant in the series finale, as Riedel earned Summit League Peak Pitcher of the Week honors after going seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts and Kreiling earned the save with two scoreless and three strikeouts.
Friday was a bullpen day for the Mavericks, with Ethan Louthan going 2.2 innings in his first career start. Chris Byhre got the next three outs, before Nick Scanlon tossed 3.1 scoreless frames to get the ball to Luke Gainer to finish things off in the final two innings.
Overall, Mavericks pitchers held ORU to just 4four earned runs last week, with all four coming in Friday's 6-5 victory. Omaha also held them to just 11 hits total as well.
Despite being 4th in games played entering this week, Omaha's pitching staff is 1st in strikeouts with 233, 16 more than 2nd place Oral Roberts.
In Saturday's shutout, Grant Sommers and Tyler Bishop provided Omaha all the offense it needed, with Sommers clubbing a solo shot in the second and Bishop hitting two solo home runs in the sixth and eighth innings.
Bishop now leads the team in seven offensive categories: runs (18), hits (32), doubles (six), home runs (five), RBIs (18), total bases (55), and SLG% (.545).
Sommers was also responsible for half of Omaha's runs in its 6-5 win the day before, driving in two on a double in the first before coming around to score on a sac fly from Trent Burkhalter later in the inning.
Cardel Dick, who drove in a run in the first on Friday as well, came through in the bottom of the ninth that day with his biggest plate appearance yet, working a full count and drawing a walk off bases-loaded walk.

Scouting St. Thomas
After a solid start to conference play, the weather has been St. Thomas' biggest obstacle as they have not played a game since March 23. With their last six games all postponed or canceled, the Tommies still remain at 9-11 overall and 4-1 in the Summit League this season.

The Tommies begin the week as the league's top hitting team with a combined .301 AVG and .844 OPS. Six players own an OPS above .900, with Brigs Richartz (1.008), Matthew Maulik (1.026), and Joe Roder (1.341) all hitting above 1.000. Richartz also leads the team in RBIs (17) and doubles (seven), while Roder is first in home runs (four). There are also Ben Vujovich (.957 OPS) and Zan Von Schlegell (.922 OPS) who lead the way in runs (23) and triples (three), respectively.

UST's pitching staff has been less dominant, posting a 6.99 team ERA. Starters Devon Schewe (3.38 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) and Jacob Mroski (4.31 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) have been the team's top arms, with the latter also having 46 strikeouts and a .167 BAA. Out of the pen, closer Carl Cano has racked up four saves so far, despite a 4.91 ERA.

Chris Olean was a three-time NCAA Division III Coach of the Year before the Tommies made the jump to D1. In the final season before the transition, he led St. Thomas to a runner-up finish in the national championship series. Olean is 35-74 so far at the Division I level.