Jon Guion hit a two-run home run in the second inning, then scored the eventual game-winning run in the seventh inning, lifting the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) to a 4-3 victory over Allegheny College (Pa.) in a championship-round game of the NCAA Division III College World Series Monday afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium.

With the win, St. Thomas (35-12 overall) secures a national finish of no less than a second place. Last year, the Tommies, in their first-ever College World Series appearance, finished second in the country. St. Thomas, the lone unbeaten team (3-0) remaining in the tournament, faces Chapman (Calif., 33-11) at 7 p.m. tonight. Allegheny, now 38-9 overall, plays again at 3:30 p.m. against Montclair State (N.J., 39-7-1). The tournament is a double-elimination format.

“It’s kind of nice, to tell you the truth,” said St. Thomas coach Dennis Denning of securing at least a second-place finish. “I just felt after last year that jeez, we’ll never be here again, probably. … Well, we’re in the same situation again. Who knows, maybe we’ll be lucky this year. It’s a great feeling, we can relax a little bit more the next game and see what happens. Then we know we’re in the championship game. We know that’s not our goal, to win the national championship, but here we are, we’re in the national championship game. All we have to do is bring our type-A game and enjoy ourselves and see what happens.”

Guion, St. Thomas’ No. 8 hitter, connected on a blast to left field in the second inning off of Allegheny starter Jeff Mountain, just the second home run in the 11 games of the College World Series. Unlike the first three days of the tournament, when the wind was blowing in and weather conditions were cold, Monday’s conditions were ideal, with the wind relatively calm and warm temperatures.

“It was a little surprising. I’m not a big, strong guy,” Guion said. “He gave me 0-2 and threw a fastball right down the middle. I just reacted to it and tried to put the bat on the ball and got lucky.”

St. Thomas held a 3-1 lead after two innings, but Allegheny tied the game with single runs in the sixth and seventh. Jarrod Essey’s double to left-center drove in Brad Hensler in the sixth. Joe Kacsanek led off the seventh for the Gators with a single, then moved to third when Tug Ollock’s fly ball to deep left was dropped by St. Thomas left fielder Luke Sather. Kacsanek came in to score on a single by Mark Minadeo to tie the game at 3-3.

But in the bottom of the seventh frame, St. Thomas took the lead again. Leadoff hitter Guion reached on a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by No. 9 hitter Luke Sather, then scored on a single by Brad Bonine.

“It was just a fastball right down the middle of the plate. I was just looking to hit the ball hard. I pretty much just concentrated, put the bat out and made contact,” said Bonine of his seventh-inning single.

Guion went 3-for-4 in the game to lead the Tommies, while Bonine, the Tommies’ leadoff hitter, went 3-for-3 with a run scored and a RBI. Sather and Tony Wolverton, who entered the game in the No. 9 spot in the eighth inning, and second baseman Jake Mauer had the other Tommie hits. Bonine scored the Tommies’ first run of the game, after being hit by a pitch. Steve Aronson also scored for the Tommies, coming around on Guion’s homer.

Bryan Edstrom started his second game of the tournament for St. Thomas and pitched into the seventh inning before being relieved by Mike Honsa, who made his second appearance of the series after pitching a complete-game, 8-3 win over Cortland State on Saturday, pitched in relief and struck out three in three innings pitched to claim the victory. Honsa is now 10-3 on the season; Edstrom, who struck out two and allowed just one earned run, is 7-1.

“I was surprised (to go in in the seventh),” Honsa said. “It was a quick ‘get-in.’ He (coach Denning) told me if Eddy (Edstrom) got through the next inning, I’d probably go in the eighth or the ninth. All of a sudden, there’s a single and the next thing you know, I’m in the game with throwing just six warmup pitches. I kind of took the first two innings, almost, to get loose. The only time I felt really comfortable was in the ninth, with my arm and body and such. It was tough getting loose but once I got loose it wasn’t too bad.”

Honsa said he would be ready to pitch in a championship game on Tuesday.

“I think anybody could,” he said. “If you’re playing for a national title, you’ve got the rest of your life to heal. If it’s a little sore, and you can pitch through it without injuring yourself, I’d say go for it.”

Allegheny pitcher Jeff Mountain, also making his second start of the tournament (he pitched a 4-2 win over Chapman on Friday), lost his first game of the season to fall to 10-1 overall. He struck out eight Tommies while walkig just three. All four runs against Mountain were earned.

Hensler paced the Gators with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate, scoring a run. Minadeo scored a run and had a run-scoring single, and Ben Couch went 2-for-5.