University of St. Thomas 8, Emory University 3

Game Recap - Box Score/Play-By-Play

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"I was on edge the whole game," St. Thomas head coach Dennis Denning said. "I don't care what the score is, I'm always on edge. I did try to relax, but we did get off to a good start, fortunately." Bryan Toov (8-4) went the distance to earn the victory. Toov gave up six hits, four walks and struck out two. Jon Lee (5-8) went eight-plus innings and took the loss. 

"(Toov) went after people. That was the thing I was looking for," Emory head coach Mike Twardoski said. "He got up in the count and he would make a good pitch. He had a lot of 2-0 breaking pitches. He was just putting the ball where we couldn't hit it today. Sometimes you have to tip your cap to a guy like that." 

The Tommies staked Toov to a 4-0 lead with two runs in the first and two more in the second. Nate Sundberg and Steve Aronson both had run-scoring singles and the Tommies were helped by an Emory error to grab a 2-0 lead in the first. In the second, St. Thomas increased its lead to 4-0. Tony Wolverton and Kyle Olson both singled and later scored on a two-run single by Jake Mauer, who went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. 

"We came out real tentative," Emory right fielder Drew Schwartz said. "It's hard to come back from behind. It was one of our main problems today. Our bats just didn't get going." 

Emory countered with a run in the bottom of the second to trim the lead to 4-1 when Schwartz singled and later scored on a groundout by David VanWinkle. 

The Eagles rallied in the fifth to cut the lead to 4-3. With runners at first and second, Kyle Foster reached and that allowed Tommy Lee to score. Michael Sayegh then scored on Todd Rasmussen's single to trim the lead to a single run. Toov avoided further damage by getting a ground out and fly out to end the inning. 

"When (Toov is) out there pitching and we get a lead, all we have to do is really play defense behind him." Denning said. 

The Tommies added an insurance run in the sixth when Jon Guion was hit by a pitch and scored on a ground out by Olson to build the lead to 5-3. 

St. Thomas sealed the victory with three runs in the ninth. Brad Bonine singled to lead off the ninth and that sent Lee to the showers. Matt Buzzell and Mauer followed with a singles off reliever Stefan Lollar that scored Bonine. Ethan Solomon came in to pitch for the Eagles and retired the first two batters he faced, but Paul Rafferty belted a two-run double to put the Tommies up 8-3. 

"Our experience in the (regional tournament) helped us out quite a bit," Mauer said. "We played a bunch of close games in the region and when we needed a big hit in the (ninth) inning to break it open a little bit, we came up with it." 

St. Thomas improves to 33-12 and faces either the State University of New York-Cortland or Montclair (N.J.) State University Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Emory falls to 33-15 and faces either Cortland or Montclair State at 10 a.m. Saturday.